


Fall Flat

by ToDefineIsToLimit



Series: How Do We Stack Up? [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Illegal Activities, Logan Needs A Hug, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mythology References, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Slow Burn, Swords, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2020-07-30 09:35:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 56,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20095129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToDefineIsToLimit/pseuds/ToDefineIsToLimit
Summary: With Dee out of the way a new villain rises to the forefront, Virgil is the newest criminal mastermind that threatens our fair city.Roman wrestles with feelings he doesn't understandLogan researches the source of the mysterious powers....And Patton just makes some freaking friends not everything has to be so bleak jesus(You need to read the first fic in this series to understand this one cuz it's all one story)





	1. Presentation!

**Author's Note:**

> None of these characters belong to me (obviously after all they're Sanders Sides it says right there in the name) but I figure it's only polite to say so.
> 
> Shout out to my darling beta reader Jocey_frost  
You know what, go check her out on tumblr  
@joceyfrost  
She deserves love for all she does for me
> 
> This whole act of the story is inspired by megamind, because I'm gay and dramatic and related hard core to him. Also that movie is just really good???
> 
> Alright Darling's we're gonna get right back into it with a little bit of a shorter chapter than usual but I really wanted to get this one out before school starts because lord knows what my schedual is gonna look like
> 
> Hope you like it <3

It was seven forty-five, the second of January, in Logan's bedroom, and just forty-eight hours ago, Virgil's biggest problem was finding time to hang out with Logan.

"Alright, let's just go over everything from the top. Do you have your bullet proof vest?" Logan asked holding his clipboard. 

"Yes." Virgil answered, double checking to make sure, despite being able to feel the weight of it. "By the way, where did you get this?"

"I have a stock of five which were afforded to me just this morning by a generous benefactor." Logan didn't look up from the clipboard. The phrase "generous benefactor" sounded really suspicious.

"Who?" Virgil asked.

"Just another superhuman I'm in contact with who occasionally has access to large sums of money that he uses to help out where he can." Logan said evading the question.

Virgil tilted his head slightly, peering at Logan, "How many superhumans do you know?"

"Present company excluded, four total, which I hope is all there is in this city." 

"Damn, so that's Roman, Remus, Fae, and one more."

"Indeed. Do you have your running shoes?" Logan asked moving on quickly.

"Yes." Virgil said scuffing his shoe against the carpet of Logan's bedroom.

"Disguise?"

"Hold on, I've got it here," Virgil said with a smile. He had a whole plan for this. If there was anything he was good at it was establishing an aesthetic.

He pulled his hair into a messy ponytail with the hair tie on his wrist and kneeled to open his backpack. He pulled out a delicate crown of copper leaves. This shit had taken so long to make.

"What is that?" Logan asked, as Virgil adjusted the crown on his head in his phone's camera.

"I made it in that jewelry making class I'm in. I've been working on it for weeks, but I figured it would be useful. I can't just go out and be like 'Hey my name is Virgil and I'm here to fuck shit up' I need an identity. So I'm going with Deimos."

"Is there a reference I'm missing here?"

"Deimos is the greek god of slow creeping fear." Virgil said, honestly a little excited about being able to explain something to Logan for once. "He's a son of Ares. It's only fitting to pay respects to him since I'll be relying on Roman being afraid of me for this. I need to be at least a little intimidating."

Virgill pulled out a tube black eyeliner. 

"You have a mask that covers your eye area. What is that for?" Logan asked sounding exasperated.

"Watch." Virgil started drawing black crescent moons on both sides of his face starting just above his eyebrows, disappearing where they met his hairline, and curling downward, coming to a point below his cheek bones. It would probably smear some but it wouldn't be the biggest deal.

He pulled his dark purple eye mask onto his face.

"I fail to see the purpose." 

Virgil rolled his eyes, "The makeup will help to obscure my face shape and distract from it. Combined with the eye mask? No one will realize." Plus it looked cool. Like, come on, it did look cool.

Logan looked him up and down, "Very well the overall effect adequately disguises you."

"Aw adequate? High praise coming from you." Virgil smirked. 

"Alright final item, weapon."

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa, weapon?" Virgil said holding up his hands. He hadn't agreed to a weapon, "I thought I could just be a shitty-Doofenshmirtz-level villain who has theoretically dangerous plans, but ultimately fails at executing them."

"It just for emergencies, calm down." Logan said as if those words had ever made anyone calm, "I have three options for you, there's a switchblade hidden in my sock drawer, a baseball bat in the back of the closet, or I have this set of brass knuckles that could be useful considering your abnormal strength."

"I don't know!" 

"Just pick one. All are potentially lethal so that shouldn't go into your calculations. However, the bat has a longer range so it could keep people further away from you. The problem with that is that it's not easily concealed. It's your choice though." 

Virgil didn't like the detached tone that Logan was explaining all of this in "potentially lethal" isn't a phrase that should ever be said with an air of boredom. 

"I apologize, I understand that was likely disconcerting. I swear I do in fact care about whether or not someone could die, but please take into account that in the past six months, the average level of safety I have in my life has drastically plummeted. Many of my qualms with violence I've expressed previously have gone out the metaphorical window."

Virgil couldn't really blame him...

"Fuck alright uh… brass knuckles?" He said not certain if it was the right choice.

"Alright," Logan dug in his bedside table drawer. "Here."

Virgil slipped the brass knuckles into his pocket and hoped he wouldn't need them. 

"Then… am I ready for school dad?" Virgil said trying to lighten the mood.

The corner of Logan's mouth almost quirked up into a smile, "Indeed. I trust you'll be able to prepare by yourself from now on?" 

"You got it man." Virgil finger gunned awkwardly at him.

"Alright, a few final notes. If Roman passes out with you, put him somewhere safe nearby where he won't be seen and I'll come pick him up. He agreed to let me access his phone location to check where he is in case he passes out, and doesn't make it home. So, I'll find him easily." Logan adjusted the black trench coat Virgil was wearing to hide the bullet proof vest.

He continued speaking as he fussed over Virgil's costume, "If he pulls out his sword, keep low, he has a preference for dramatic swipes that 'look cool' and they end up being high up and easily ducked under."

"Lastly," Here Logan paused with a hand on Virgil's shoulder, "remember from eight o'clock until one o'clock you are not Virgil Timor. You are Deimos, known supervillain. Don't forget that." 

"Alright Lo, I'll be careful." He held out his arms. "Hug?"

Logan pulled him into a tight hug, "Thank you for the help."

Virgil held him just as tightly, "Thanks for letting me." 

They pulled back and Logan said, "Okay, I am going to go make sure Roman has left."

Logan left the room shutting the door behind him. A few moments later he called "You are clear."

Virgil came out into the living room and went to the window, "Bye Lo, I'm gonna go try not to get stabbed."

"Good luck." 

Virgil climbed out onto the fire escape and ran toward downtown.

***

Virgil as it turns out did not have great maneuvering skill when he went superfast and thus he slammed directly into Roman because he couldn't stop fast enough. Great opening bro, good job.

Roman fell backwards and his helmet gave a loud clang as it hi the pavement. Roman scrambled back to a standing position.

"What the fuck?!" Roman said flipping his cape behind him as it got caught on his helmet. He stood up and looked at Virgil. 

"Sorr-" Virgil said on reflex, then stopped himself before he did anything unintentionally polite. 

Shit shit shiiiit he didn't really plan his opening lines like he had planned to act like he was in danger and ask for help and lead Roman somewhere less populated, but he didn't really have a plan on how to do that.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Roman asked. 

Virgil decided to just let his panic show, "Please I really need you to come with me. If you don't they'll get me please." 

This was technically true, if Roman refused to go to a place with less witnesses the police would probably catch Virgil, so Virgil did need Roman to go with him.

"Who is they? Do you need help?" Roman asked looking around to see who Virgil was talking about.

"Please just come on." Virgil pleaded grasping Roman's sleeve. 

"Okay?" Roman said, walking in the direction that Virgil lead him. Virgil didn't lay any strength into the grip he had on Roman's sleeve, he wanted this to go quietly until they were away from people.

Virgil, still gripping Roman's sleeve went to a small side street where the lamp lights flickered and no one was walking. 

Creepy shit. Good setting.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked looking around at the apartment buildings that rose around them.

"Mainly? The fact that it was so fuckin' easy to drag you away from all the witnesses. Seriously, like you don't even know me, I could be a murderer or something." Virgil was not sure how Roman was still alive if he was this trusting.

Roman pulled his arm away and back up a few paces, drawing his sword, "Who are you and what do you want?" Shit Virgil hadn't practiced this part either.

"I'm, uh, your new nemesis. You killed Fae, so... someone needs to keep you in line!" That sounded weeeeeeak, fuck, fuck, he couldn’t mess this up.

Roman shook his head seeming exasperated, "What are you like twelve? Go home kid, try a punching bag for all that excess aggression." Roman took off, ready to fly away from Virgil. 

Seriously all this work and he was blowing Virgil off like this? Nuh-uh that's some bullshit.

Without thinking, Virgil's hand shot out grabbing Roman's ankle. One tug and Roman was sprawled on the ground. His sword skittered out of reach. 

"What the fuck?!" Roman demanded.

"Look," Virgil said placing his foot in the middle of Roman's chest (not hard just like enough to be intimidating you know?).

"You're right." Virgil agreed channeling all the anger he could muster into his words, "I do have a lot of aggression. I work a job, I go to school, and I haven't spent any real time with my best friend in months. And oh yeah, on top of all that normal person shit, I have superpowers. So yeah, I am dealing with a lot of excess aggression, and it just so happens that you, and this city, are my punching bag." 

The truth was he wasn't really as much of the angry type as the moody sulky type, but he must have communicated convincing enough rage, because Roman seemed to be taking him seriously now.

"Why?" Roman groaned, trying to wrestle Virgil's foot off of him. "Why this city? What the fuck made you angry with a whole city?"

"Well the city is just a necessary evil. My real problem is you." Virgil pressed his foot down as punctuation. Roman let out a small noise of pain. 

He was gonna be okay, Virgil was carefully monitoring the pressure.

"The city is just gonna be collateral damage in making you look bad and slowly crushing every last bit of spirit you have. " Virgil bent over and grabbed Roman's sword off the ground. Probably better to not risk Roman getting a hold of it until Virgil was ready.

"What," Roman grunted, tugging on Virgil's foot, "did I do to you?"

"Nothing personal, my employer however, you've made his life very… stressful. I was sent to deal with you because you were getting in the way of his goals. Me dealing with you from now on… well that just benefits everyone involved." It was true, he was literally doing this because Logan was stress and needed to focus on schoolwork. 

"Who's your employer?"

"Wouldn't you like to know weather boy?" Virgil said automatically.

"Vine? You're quoting a vine right now? Are you fucking kidding me?!" Roman said as if he was allowed to judge with how frequently he said "yeet".

"Ah ah ah, manners." Virgil said pressing his foot down further briefly then letting it up a little.

"Let me up!" Roman said struggling.

"Fine." Virgil said releasing him. He had gotten Roman's attention by this point so it wouldn't hurt to let him up.

"Who are you?!" Roman demanded.

"You may call me Deimos," He said with an ominous growl in his voice.

"And what do you plan to do?" Roman demanded, his voice seeming less and less confident as this interaction continued. 

"Distract you so my employer can get some Work done," Virgil answered with a smirk, putting unnecessary emphasis on the word "work".

"You better warn your employer that I'm not easily distracted." 

"Oh yeah?" Virgil tossed him his sword, better make it a fair fight.

"Yeah." Roman said, catching it.

Virgil leaned forward in a stage whisper, "Then why are you here?" 

***

Virgil was fucking Floating!

Who knew that that was gonna be so fun?!

The fist fight had been interesting, Virgil had never been in one before and honestly the only reason he won was because he was super fast but hey that wasn't the point.

Sure it started out kinda shaky, but he liked to believe that it worked in his favor, because Roman wasn't expecting him to get all scary and shit.

Like Virgil sure planned the part where he lured Roman away from the crowds. He didn't want to do their first meeting in front of everyone because he figured it was gonna go really badly and he didn't want anyone to see that. Beyond that? Virgil had no fucking plan.

Then Roman tried to blow him off like he wasn't even scary (And he insulted his height, so fuck him! Virgil was way taller than a twelve year old) and a switch like, flipped in Virgil's brain. 

Which is good because it's important for Roman to be afraid of Deimos. If he isn't, he would move on to what he considers bigger threats. And it was so cool, like Virgil literally just explained the situation with Logan to him, he didn't even lie during that! And it sounded all menacing and shit, like wow!

There was an awkward moment with the vine reference, but it was his first night, he'd get better. 

It was a shock for him to realize that he really believed that. He genuinely believed he had potential to get better at this. 

That was something new for him.


	2. No, You're my friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: feelings?  
Unfortunately there isnt a good way to clarify that.  
Look just one of the characters is going to act like a bit of a jerk fair warning no worries it will be resolved   
On the bright side theres some witty banter and bro time

Patton was sitting on the couch, crocheting a blanket for Dee. 

He was alone for the evening Dee and Virgil were off doing heaven knows what. Well not Dee, Patton figured he knew what Dee was doing.

After the way Dee acted when he got home last night he was almost certainly on Knight watch. Patton laughed to himself. It was like- like night watch but- yeah you get it.

Last night Dee had come home soaking wet, shivering and clinging to a strangely dry scarf. Despite it being almost two AM he had knocked on Patton's bedroom door. Patton was glad he was comfortable coming to Patton when he needed something even if it had kept him from sleeping.

Patton had dragged himself out of bed and saw Dee in his doorway, shivering like a chihuahua. It had taken nearly two hours to warm him up to a normal temperature. Dee spent the time explaining how he faked his death. 

Dee didn't cry (Patton doubted that he would ever see Dee cry), but he could tell he was really upset. He wouldn't be surprised if Dee had gone to find out who the new adversary was tonight. Dee didn't want to admit it but he was really worried about the Knight.

Patton was almost half finished with the blanket, he was making it out of black and yellow yarn. It was starting to look kinda bumblebee themed but hopefully Dee would like it. It would bee alright. 

He heard the front door open, and slam shut.

Dee stomped by, heading toward his room, and said, "Patton I really would appreciate you following me, because I need to talk to you, but I also will be slamming the door for catharsis and not at all because I'm dramatic." He slammed the bedroom door behind him.   
Patton laughed gently, setting aside his yarn and the blanket he was making. It was definitely partly because Dee was dramatic, but that was okay. He tugged his on gloves and stood up. 

He decided to knock on Dee's bedroom door even though he was already invited in.

"Come in." 

Patton entered. Dee was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. He had thrown his jacket off onto the floor and his scales were showing. Patton carefully tried not to react as he shut the door behind him.

Inside he was really really excited because Dee was relaxing around him, but if he reacted Dee would tense up and the moment would be gone. 

Looks like the Scales had tipped in favor of friendship. 

Patton took that joke and tucked it away into a mental box never to use, because it would probably make Dee uncomfortable.

"Dee?" Patton said quietly.

Dee immediately launched into a rant "Okay for the record I'm not a child I Get that Logan Specifically got a new villain to challenge him I'm not mad about that, but he certainly didn't waste any time getting comfortable with the new guy did he?"

"Oh Kiddo…" Patton resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle Dee's hair affectionately.

"No, no, it's fine, it's totally his choice. I'm just surprised he was so comfortable with such a Quality shift. I mean- you know, it's no big deal, I'm just shocked he was able to transition from long graceful fights, dances really, over the river, and on rooftops with Me, to a quick, bumbling, fist fight on a trashy side street. No, no, not a side street, actually. A fucking alley. It was an alley. But sure, whatever, that's fine. As long as he stays out of trouble, right?"

"You really care about him, don't you?" Patton said with a small smile, settling down crossed legged on Dee's floor.

"No. I just thought he had standards that's all."

"Mmhmm right, that's why you followed him, and watched his first night with the new guy." Patton said with a grin.

Dee turned his head and looked at Patton, "You know, you're kind of a bastard sometimes."

"All the time, actually. I was born out of wedlock." Patton joked.

Dee chuckled a little, but then stopped abruptly, "Hey, I'm trying to sulk moodily. Could you not make me smile?"

"I will try." Patton said making a silly face like he was concentrating really hard.

"You're a liar, you aren't even trying. " Dee said shaking his head with a soft smile. Dee tried to act cool, but really he had the same sense of humor as Patton.

They fell into a comfortable silence.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Patton asked after some time.

Dee sighed heavily, "Do? What is there to do? I'm going to stick to the plan."

"He's your friend, though." Patton said. Dee couldn't just throw that away, he didn't make friends casually like that. Did he?

"No you're my friend." Dee corrected, "He's… The Knight." 

"What does that mean?" Patton was confused now.

Dee opened his mouth and looked like he was searching for words, he sighed, "...It means that I wish I never got involved." 

"But then you never would have gotten to know him…"

"A small price to pay to feel comfortably apathetic toward him."

Patton's eyebrows drew together, " You never could have been apathetic toward him. If you hadn't ran into him that night you would have ran into him somewhere else. Some people are meant to be together."

Dee's head snapped up to look at him.

"No, not like that! I just mean… you were always going to be Something to each other." Patton said seriously. "Like you and me or Logan and all of us. Our destinies are kinda like… stuck together."

There was a long silence before Dee spoke.

"... I know." 

***

The next morning Patton walked through the door to Logan's lab. 

He had gotten used to these visits and looked forward to them. Logan was just on the cusp of almost-his-friend, but not quite. If it was Patton's decision they would be friends, but he knew Logan wasn't so quick to feel comfortable with people. 

"Greetings Patton." Logan looked up from whatever he was working on and gave Patton an almost smile.

'Hi Logan!' Patton thought with a wave.

"Better get right into it I suppose." Logan closed the file he was reading from and pushed it away from himself.

He stood and dragged a second chair next to where he was sitting and gestured for Patton to sit. It was very kind of Logan to find a place for him to sit, it really chaired Patton up. 

"That joke was terrible, but you're welcome." Logan rolled his eyes. Patton laughed.

He settled into the chair facing Logan, tugged off his gloves, and laid them on his lap. He held out his hands palms up. 

Logan reached out, then stopped, "Actually today I think we should try something a little different if you're alright with that. Now that you are comfortable with your powers perhaps you could try out gaining a little control over it."

'Alright, sounds good.' Patton said nodding, a little nervous. 

"Do not be embarrassed if you fail, this will likely take a great deal of practice. Even I, have gained no control of my powers, and I have been practicing for almost five months now." Logan said reassuringly.

Patton nodded and Logan placed his hands on Patton's. 

Patton immediately was hit with the feedback from Logan. Stress. That's all there was… wait no there was something else. Fear. A wall of fear and stress and Patton had just face planted into it at top speed. 

This tension had been steadily building in Logan's mind as time went on. It started as just a tense ball of emotion coiled in the back of his mind, but now it was like Patton was being physically hit with it. 

He had to help him. He had to figured out his power now and calm Logan down.

He closed his eyes to focus on his power. He put his own nervousness and worry and stress aside and started insistently pushing a concept toward Logan. 

He tried to communicate a series of pictures, he didn't know why it just seemed like the thing to do. It was a set of his favorite scenes from studio ghibli movies. He pushed those picture toward where he felt Logan's presence in his mind. He somehow knew that it should calm Logan even if Logan didn't clearly receive the pictures. After all, what was calmer than a studio ghibli movie?

Patton heard a sigh from Logan. He let one of his eyes slide open just a crack. Logan's eyes were closed and his face had lost that pinched look that had been a permanent fixture of his features for as long as Patton had known him. The tension seemed to subside.

Patton opened his eyes all the way. He had done it! He had communicated calm! He had made Logan calm!

Logan gasped, his eyes flying open as Patton's excitement rolled through him. 

Patton flinched away, 'Sorry.' He pulled his hands back. It was probably really jarring to go from that much calm to being hit with someone else's excitement.

Logan's face was a mixture of emotions that Patton couldn't read. "You did it." He said quietly.

Patton grinned expecting Logan to be excited with him. 

Logan adjusted his glasses. "Well," he cleared his throat. "Well that was sufficient demonstration of that skill, but were we not attempting to help you not communicate anything?"

Oh.

Patton smile melted, 'Oh- um, yeah- right.'

Logan held out his hands. Patton placed his on top feeling disappointment gnawing at him inside.

Now he got shame, and hurt, and a sudden loneliness from Logan. Patton wanted to pull away, it felt like it was all directed at him. 

No. No, it definitely Was directed at him.

He wanted to comfort Logan, to give him more images of softness and calm, he wanted to fix whatever it was he had done… but Logan had wanted him to communicate nothing, so that's what Patton did.

Patton forced himself to push a screensaver toward Logan. It was the only picture he could think of that didn't automatically feel like something. It was the one screensaver with the multicolored bubbles that bounce around the screen. 

He forced that picture, and an air of detachment toward Logan despite the emotions that were threatening to spill out as tear from Patton's eyes.

Patton felt a flare of anger from Logan. Had he done that? 

Logan's hands pulled away. 

'Did I not get it?' Patton asked with a frown. He wasn't sure what else could be the source of Logan's sudden anger. 

"No you did it perfectly." Logan said. Patton smiled expecting there to be some sort of positive response now that he had gotten it right. He hoped that Logan was proud of him. It had taken a lot of work and concentration for Patton to get this...

"Very well I suppose in that case these meetings are finished." Logan said standing.

Patton's face fell, 'Wait what's wrong? I don't understand." 

Logan strode toward the door, "Nothing is wrong. You've completed the objective of these meeting therefore it is no longer necessary for us to have them." He opened the door. Patton stood up.

'Is something wrong?' Patton asked realizing that Logan must be dealing with a lot getting everything rearranged with Dee and The Knight and everything. Maybe that's what was suddenly, bothering him.

"Nothing is wrong," Logan said firmly. "You're finished here with these lessons."

'Well obviously something is wrong! You're angry! Did I do something?' Patton asked.

"I am fine!" Logan snapped. He stopped and took a slow breath and continued in a clinical tone. "The lessons are finished so we have no further need to see each other."

'What about to hang out? Do you wanna get together to just have fun sometime soon?' Patton asked not sure why this felt so final.

"Stop. Please. You no longer need me. There is no longer a logical purpose to my presence in your life." Logan said no longer looking at him.

'But I thought we could be frien-'

Logan cut him off, "If you would care to participate in my research on the scientific root of superhuman abilities you may call me at a later date and we will set up an appointment for running blood tests and such. Goodbye, Patton." He opened the door pointedly.

Patton, realizing he was being dismissed, walked out the door. Logan shut it before Patton could say anything more. 

Patton felt a knot building in his throat and walked from the building hoping to get far away from here before the tears fell. 

***

Sometime later Patton was curled up on Dee's bed with the comforter around his shoulders. Dee had immediately corralled him into the room when Patton had come home, seeing that he was upset. The boy was practically on the edge of tears.

Patton had explained what happened. 

Dee nodded slowly, "So he's pissy that he's no longer needed when literally three days ago he was panicking because he couldn't handle all of us relying on him. We could have used his help. If he didn't back out I probably wouldn't have had to fake my death. That trashy villain bitch could have never surfaced. But he throws a fit because you figured out your powers?"

"Yeah I don't understand why he's mad at me." Patton murmured seeming far more upset about this than Dee would have expected.

"He's probably just finally dealing with the reality of his situation now. Despite how much it stressed him, I think Logan enjoyed being needed, and all of us listening to him. Now he's probably sad because that's over."

Patton nodded and sniffled. Oh god. Oh fuck. Patton was crying. 

Why-   
How-   
How fix the child?

"However none of that excuses his behavior." Dee said as he wrapped an arm around Patton's shoulders. The comforter, that was wrapped around Patton, was thick enough to prevent any emotional transfer. Patton just relaxed into it. 

Dee knew Patton was very into physical affection so he was making an effort to use Patton's love language to express affection right now. He was trying.

Dee was not used to this but it wasn't bad just like… really weird. Mark him down for verbal affection if anyone asks.

Patton was still crying quietly.

"C'mon who needs him, let's get you some freaking coffee. We should celebrate. That coffee shop Virgil works at is pretty good." Dee nudged him gently.

Well the coffee was passable, Dee had had better, but it was on the more reasonably priced end so why waste money.

Patton shook his head and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, "I used all my spending money on yarn."

Dee stood up pulling away from Patton, "It's on me."

Patton stood dropping Dee's blanket on the bed. "I- I just don't really feel like being around people right now, thanks though." Patton walked out of Dee's room and went to his own, shutting the door behind him.

Well fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh feeeeelingssss   
(If it seems anyone has over reacted here please trust me it makes sense for what's going on with them I swear)


	3. Hey? Hey, Dude? Fuck off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahaha I frickin win. I hit my goal of posting within a week from the last one.   
This chapter has some disaster gays, Some blooming friendships, Some crofters  
All the basics of Sanders sides content.  
So you know there are MAJOR time skips in here Don't let it throw you off
> 
> The last chapter took place in early january   
This chapter is in four parts  
The first part is in February, second in March, third in April, fourth in May

February was if possible Colder than January. If there was one more cold snap Dee would snap.

He had always been more sensitive to cold than most people. His mom theorized that it was because he was a snake or rather, partially a snake. A snaky-boy if you will. The blanket Patton made helped a lot, but it wasn't enough. He was still freezing his ass off unless the heater was kicked on high. 

That was how tensions between Dee and Virgil started rising.

As much as Dee hated the cold, Virgil seemed to hate any temperature above freezing. Dee was starting to believe that Virgil was a living snowman. It would explain a lot. 

He was very pale, he was always wearing a sweatshirt which was probably to hide his stick arms, and he hated warmth (and all other good things in this world).

The signs were there, but this knowledge was of little comfort to Dee as he came home from criminal activities one night to his frigid apartment. As if his night had not been difficult enough already. 

He had spent the whole night shuttling at least three thousand dollars worth of stolen jewelry that he had stocked in his room to Gina’s car. He usually didn’t like to keep that much of the merchandise in one place, but Gina had refused to believe he was still alive at first and it had taken a couple weeks to convince her. 

Then there had been several people who had tried to help him to his car because he had disguised himself as a very, very old man. 

If you couldn't tell he had had a very long night, and after all his hard work this was the thanks he got? Walking into a freezer at six AM?

"That is fucking it." It had been nearly three months of them passive aggressively changing the temperature while the other was away. It was time to confront the problem.

He walked to Virgil's door and started knocking, not too gently.

"Jesus christ what?" Virgil swung the door open and saw Dee standing there. Virgil was wearing shoes and his hoodie and had the smell of cold air on him, like he had just gotten back from somewhere. Where was he coming home from at six AM? Dee had half a mind to ask if it he weren't guilty of the same.

Dee smiled his most falsely polite smile, "Hi there I was just wondering if we could Turn Down the heater Even more? I'm really hoping for some frost bite this winter and if we keep going at this rate I'm never gonna get it before March!"

Patton peaked his head out of his room to watch what was going on, he slowly emerged from his room and approached closer. He looked like he had just woken up from sleeping as any reasonable person should be doing at night. Dee used to be one of those reasonable people.

"Look if you've got a problem with the temperature try putting on a jacket." Virgil said with an eye roll.

"Or we could turn on the heater because last time I checked it was February!" 

"A little chill in the apartment will not fucking kill you! What are you cold blooded?!" Virgil said going to close the door. Dee stepped toward him but Patton stepped in the way putting a hand on Dee's chest. Patton also put out his hand and held Virgil's door open.

"That's enough," he said firmly, "Both of you please go sit on the couch so we can deal with this."

Dee felt disappointment coming off of Patton, but in his defense Virgil had hit a bit too close to home with that 'cold blooded' comment.

Neither of them was going to say no to Patton so fuck it, apparently they were talking it out.

They both walked over to the couch and sat on opposing sides of it. Patton perched on the edge of the coffee table.

"Okay, who wants to talk about their frustrations first?" Patton asked.

They were both silent.

Patton looked like a disappointed dad, "Fine it'll have to be Me then. I cannot handle this temperature changing anymore. I don't even know how to dress for the day anymore!"

"Patton you wear the same thing every day…" Virgil said 

"Well for your information I just bought a really cute sweater and I haven't been able to decide when to wear it because I wake up and it's freezing and then by noon it's like living in an oven! This is a game none of us are gonna win-ter."

Dee groaned.

Smiled briefly but quickly got serious again, "So here the deal boys, I'm throwing my hat in the ring. I will adjust it to my favorite temperature everytime I see it changed. I'm sick of wearing a sweater one minute and being one the next." That joke was kinda gross but dammit that was clever.

And just like that Patton stood up and marched over to the thermostat, adjusting it to around sixty five degrees. The heater kicked on and Dee felt the warm air start rushing out of the vents. Virgil tugged off his sweatshirt with a moody look on his face.

Patton walked back over. "So now that that's settled we-"

Patton stopped speaking here for a moment, was staring at something and blinking rapidly.

Dee followed his gaze. Patton was looking at Virgil.

He was wearing a well fitting black shirt with some band logo on it. Dee realized, to his disappointment, that Virgil did not in fact have stick arms. He was actually surprisingly well built. 

Better than Dee which was odd considering that Dee spent most of his time scaling tall buildings and running from law enforcement.

Patton was staring and blushing. Oh christ, Dee rolled his eyes, Patton really was a disaster pan.

"What?" Virgil asked when he noticed Patton looking at him.

Patton didn't speak for a moment too long so Dee intervened, like a good bro. 

"Wanna arm wrestle?" He said distracting Virgil, "If you win, I stop complaining. If I win, you stop."

The corner of Virgil's mouth twitched, "Yeah sure arm wrestle." Dee knew he would win but hopefully this would give Patton a moment to recover from his gay panic.

In a series of events that surprised absolutely no one, Virgil won.

"Don't feel to bad dude I've been uh working out a lot recently…" Virgil said. 

"Well I'm glad we've settled this!" Patton laughed, seeming to have recovered. 

"Heh yeah, uh I'll leave the thermostat alone. Uh I'm gonna go shower, now." Virgil stood and walked out.

Dee turned toward Patton and gave him a Look.

Patton sighed, "Sorry, thanks. I just uh- well you were there. I mean in my defense he's fairly attractive, all dark and mysterious..."

"I guess he's alright." Dee said with a shrug.

Patton grinned, "Oh I know you only have eyes for one guy right?"

Dee felt his cheeks heat up and made sure not to let his glamour show if he was blushing, "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh no, of course not. It would take a very good night indeed for Dee to have a crush." 

Dee resolutely ignored the other spelling of the word 'night'. He refused to know what Patton was talking about. 

He Didn't know what Patton was talking about.

"So, how long have you wanted to fuck Virgil?" Dee said, changing the subject in the most abrupt way he could manage. And yet it didnt phase Patton. He was concerned that Patton might be starting to see through his facade.

"I actually don't." Patton said with a shrug. Dee raised an eyebrow.

"Well I had a crush on him for a month or two back in the fall, but... he's too secretive and closed off, you know? He's cute, but not really my style. I'm pretty sure he's straight anyway."

Dee started laughing hysterically, "Oh no, darling, that boy is not straight."

"How would you know?" Patton tilted his head to the side, peering at Dee.

"He's got a huge crush on you?" Dee rolled his eyes 

Patton looked serious suddenly, "It's not very nice to make things like that up, Dee."

Dee shrugged it off, it was no use trying to get pattom to believe him after he spent so long convincing everyone he was just a sarcastic liar. He moved on, "Hey speaking of making up, have you gone to Logan to give a blood sample yet?"

Patton smiled, "Yeah yesterday!"

"Oh?"

"He finally apologized a couple days ago and I agreed to come in."

"Why didn't you tell me?" 

"I thought I did, remember the other night? We were in the kitchen?"

Dee thought back to that night, "Ah yes I'm sorry. As I recall I was feeling cold at the time and that tends to make me rather sleepy. I might have been dozing off while you talked…"

"Wow that's cold of you!" Patton exclaimed.

Dee sighed, "Why was this such a big deal to you anyway?"

"It's just... never cool to get mad at someone for accomplishing something they worked hard at, you know?" Patton said with a frown.

"Fair point." Dee conceded.

***

Roman came home from a long nice of bruises and bashing, climbed through the window, tripping on the sill, and landed in their living room with a clang.

"Who there?" A voice that wasn’t Logan's called. Roman banished his helmet and costume, then immediately realized he was wearing anything under it making him completely naked on his living room floor. He summoned an outfit just as Virgil's head popped around the corner.

"Oh it's you." Virgil said, not questioning why Roman was sprawled on the floor or why he had just climbed through the window when he could have used the door. Roman could appreciate that about Virgil, in some ways he was extremely go with the flow. 

He was currently eating one of the yogurts from the fridge. At least he was comfortable here.

"Yeah it's me," Roman propped his chin up on his hand with his foot still sticking out the window, "my apartment and all that. Hey, may I ask why you're here, and where Logan is?" 

Roman rolled over and clambered to his feet despite the slight dizziness that came with summoning two full outfits in one evening.

Virgil clicked his tongue and shrugged, "Ah you know Lo. Early to bed. At least I assume so, haven't technically seen him but his door is closed."

"I hardly think one thirty am counts as 'early to bed'. If anything you and I are up way too early."

Virgil pointed the spoon at him, "Yes, up early, that's a good way to look at it."

"You still haven't said why you're here and eating our food." Normally Roman would try to think of something witty to say right now but he was too tired for that, he smoothed out his rumpled shirt.

Virgil made a noncommittal noise, "We're out of decent snacks at my place. Also bandaids. Decided to come ask Logan for some of each and I would reimburse you for the resources tomorrow, but he was asleep so I decided to just go for the yogurt. Where do you guys keep the bandages?"

Roman walked over to the dresser that held the TV and opened the top drawer. He pulled out the red box that was their first aid kit. It was well used by now. Roman had had to restock the supplies in there multiple times now. He tossed it toward Virgil who caught it in the hand that wasn't holding yogurt.

"Thanks." Virgil made his way over to the table and pulled up a chair. Roman noticed his knuckles were red and split in places.

"Yeah pass it here when your done." Roman said limping over to the freezer to grab the ice pack. It was barely refrozen from when he used it this morning. He held it against his ribs which were still sore from when he fell onto a curb three days ago. "What did you do to your hand?"

Virgil tugged his sweatshirt off and set it on the table in front of him, "I have a friend who owns a boxing gym, he lets me come in for free after hours, because the exercise helps me get to sleep at night."

"Sounds like a nice guy."

"Yeah, couldn't imagine having a better pal." Virgil hissed through his teeth as he wiped and alcohol pad across his knuckles. "Anyway, what twelve year old bully kicked your ass, and sent you home bruised?"

Roman chuckled feebly, if only Virgil knew what he had actually been up to tonight. "It was a couple guys actually. Ran my mouth when I shouldn't have to someone that I shouldn't have. Unfortunately, he had like four or five friends and they were all unhappy with me."

"So another bar fight?" Virgil smirked.

"Yeah, real big guys too." Roman said trying to make himself not look pathetic next to Virgil who had like actual muscles and went out Voluntarily to box, nightly.

"Oh yeah definitely, I bet they had baseball bats too." Virgil said sarcastically. He pulled out a bandage from the box that had Lightning McQueen on it. 

"Okay fuck off maybe it was One guy, but you should see how beat up he was when I was through with him."

"I can only imagine." Virgil said with a hint of irony in his tone as he gently placed the bandage across is hand. 

Somehow he still looked cool with a red cartoon race car on his hand and Roman was wishing he had summoned a pair of sunglasses with the outfit. 

"Here I'm done with this." Virgil slid the open box over to Roman, inspected the bruises that littered his arms, and grabbed his sweatshirt to put it back on.

He picked up his yogurt and took a bite. "So, how often do you get your ass kicked like this?"

"What's it to you, you very vitriolic vampire?" Roman said, really not wanting to say that he went drinking nightly. 

"Just wondering cuz I'm getting kinda sick of going home to a quiet apartment after my workout. Plus, there's nothing more pathetic than putting on cartoon bandages alone."

Roman couldn't help but feel like that last comment was a shot at him. "What are you implying?"

Virgil yawned and stretched like a cat, "That if you plan on continuing your self destructive spiral we might as well hang out afterwards. No reason for us both to be alone with our thoughts."

"I don't have a problem being alone with my thoughts." Roman said too defensively.

"Whatever, if you don't want to it's fine, just thought we might be able to pool our funds and buy bandaids that aren't going to get me picked on by my little sibling."

Roman hesitated a moment. If he was honest, it sounded... nice. The past two months, the majority of his socializing came in the form of banter and fist fights with Deimos, which was never as kind as it had been with Fae. He didn't even have a class with Dee this semester and Logan was usually in bed when he came home and gone by the time he woke up.

He was... lonely. And it was the kind of loneliness that sinks into your bones and makes everything you do feel pointless.

Some part of him missed Fae. That part of him was very big, it was roughly the size of a bowling ball. Which was dumb. They were barely friends, shouldn't he have gotten over it by now? Two months was a long time to be thinking about someone whose name you didn't know. 

Roman pursed his lips. He really could use a friend in all this.

"Fine. Here or your place?" Roman asked scrubbing a cut on his arm with an alcohol wipe.

Virgil shrugged, "Here, I guess."

The front door creaked open.

They both whipped around. It was Logan looking rumpled and tired.

"Ah V, Ro." A small smile appeared on Logan's face. Logan had never called him "Ro" before. He must be really exhausted.

"Ah! Yes I am! What day is it?" Logan said, borderline enthusiastic.

"It very early Friday morning… did you just get home?" Virgil looked horrified. 

"Friday?! Oh dear I should really eat something." Logan giggled. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a jar of crofters and a spoon. Logan took a few massive spoonfuls. That was definitely not a meal and also it was concerning that Logan didn't even know what day it was.

"You are quite right on both counts Roman!" Logan said brightly, "I became overly focused on some research in my lab around eight am yesterday." 

Logan started giggling as if this was all too funny. Logan slide to the floor still laughing and sat on the kitchen floor having clearly reached a tired delirium. He ate another bite of jam.

"Alright, it's bedtime Doc." Virgil said, standing, and setting down his yogurt. He shook his head good naturedly.

Logan stopped laughing abruptly. His eyebrows scrunched downward and he nodded seriously. "You are entirely right. If it is not too much of an inconvenience I will rest here for now. I will eat the jam when I wake up." Logan started to try to lie on the tile floor. 

Virgil stopped him, laughing, "For the sake of your dignity I can't let you do that." He scooped Logan up, jam and all, and held him in his arms. Logan's head slumped onto Virgil's shoulder.

"Did you know your hoodie is exceedingly soft?" Logan sounded baffled.

"Roman could you grab the door?"

Roman stood up and opened Logan's bedroom door so Virgil could carry him in and laid him on the bed.

Virgil closed the door behind him as he left the room.

"I worry about him." Virgil said quietly.

Roman nodded in silent agreement.

***

Some weeks passed and by the time April rolled around they still met every night after they fought. It was routine now. They were chatting about nothing, insulting each other frequently, the usual.

Virgil originally had wanted to hang out with Roman after their fights to help patch him up. Virgil felt a little guilty about all the bruises he was leaving on him, but they had become begrudging friends.

Not really surprising when you think about it. You can only have so many one am recovery sessions before you start feeling a little fond of the mother fucker who kicked your ass not hours before.

"Hey, by the way have you seen Logan in the past few days?" Virgil asked Roman. He had his feet kicked up on the edge of Roman's chair and Roman was doing the same to his. 

"In passing, haven't talked much." Roman said with a shrug. He started duct taping an ice pack to his bruised wrist. Virgil wasn't sure how good an idea that was, but considering the extent of his own first aid skills was 'rub some neosporin on it' he figured he wasn't in a position to judge.

Roman glanced at Virgil and back to his task, "Why do you ask?"

Virgil shrugged trying to disguise the concern he felt for Logan, "He hasn't answered my texts for a while. Which is cool, he isn't like obligated, I was just making sure he had been seen alive recently."

"Don't you guys go to dinners with your families once a week?"

"He hasn't come to the last two. He keeps texting me last minute saying that he has work that can't wait." 

"Weird."

"No shit." Virgil had been really worrying about Logan but if Logan wanted to talk to him he could call when he was ready. Virgil didn't want to push it.

"I'm sure he's okay. He's Logan." Roman said not sounding as confident as his words would seem. "Don't flip out, Sad-erella."

Virgil cocked his head to the side and squinted at Roman, "Is that really the best nickname you could do?"

"Oh bibbidi-bobbidi-boo-hoo you didn't get a cool nickname this time." Roman stuck his tongue out. Very mature.

"Aww someone's cranky, what's the matter? Does the stuck-up little prince need a nap?"

"Hey, hey, Virgil?Fuck off." He answered sarcastically, "I'm sore okay? It really takes it out of you, kicking ass every night."

"You mean getting your ass kicked?" Virgil smirked smugly. 

"No, I mean, fuck off, Virgil." Roman rubbed the back of his neck tiredly, "That's it. I'm not going tomorrow, I'm staying home."

Virgil acted tough, but this hobby they had was as strenuous as it was fun. He hadn't been able to sleep on his left side for a week because his left hip was beaten to all hell from Roman making him trip and fall onto the hood of a car. Well fall wasn't exactly the right word, it was more like an accidental gymnastics feat. There had been a somersault involved.

"You've said that three times this week. You're going to end up going.'

"No I mean it this time. I need a break." Roman said shaking his head. 

Oh if only Roman meant it, Virgil would kill for a night off. 

"Yeah yeah whatever you say Princey. You're just gonna sit here and bemoan your aches and pains and then turn around and do it all again."

Roman let his head fall backwards and let his duct taped wrist hang loss at his side, "Why don't you insult me in your own apartment, that way I don't have to hear it?"

"Cuz someone has to keep you from getting a big head. Also Dee has been vaguely probing for information on my dating preferences everytime I hang out at my place now. It's getting awkward."

"Ah he wants to know if you like guys. He's flirting with yooooou." Roman said in his best mocking third grader voice.

"No I think he's trying to prove a point to Patton. He keeps giving Patton pointed looks after I answer."

"Weird. What kind of questions?"

Virgil shrugged, "Eh they're like 'So do you still keep in contact with your high school girlfriend?' And I told him I was homeschooled and never dated anyone in my teen years. Pluses I'm like ninety percent sure both he and Patton like you." Virgil tried to keep his voice neutral. He was trying to move past the crush on Patton. He was determined to move on.

Roman wrinkled his nose, "What?"

"Yeah him and Patton talk about some guy when they think I'm outta earshot and all I've been able to pick up is that he's very dramatic."

"Okay first of all I'm not the only dramatic guy in the city and second of all I'm not interested." Roman said with a flip of the hand.

"Why not?" Virgil said feeling slightly defensive was there some reason that Patton wasn't good enough.

"Dee's a jerk, not my type. " Roman said with a frown. Then he looked at Virgil, gave him a knowing look, and continued, "And Patton is spoken for."

"He is a jerk." Virgil conceded. "But I don't know what you mean 'spoken for'"

"I mean that You are besotted, enamored, smitten."

Virgil looked at him blankly, trying to not let any reaction show, "English princey."

"It's elementary my dear emo. You are totally crushing." Roman grinned mischievously.

Virgil wasn't happy that he was so transparent.

"Hey Roman?"

"Yeah?"

"Fuck off."

Roman just laughed.

***

"Okay what's up?" Dee demanded from the other end of the couch. His voice broke Patton out of his reverie.

"The ceiling!" Patton answered forcing a laugh.

"Don't bullshit me right now, you've been weirdly quiet all day, so tell me what you're feeling. I mean you don't have to, obviously, but I'd to like to hear it."

Patton pursed his lips he didn't particularly want to talk about it because what he was feeling was hard to put words to but Dee was always really good about sharing with him over these past few months.

Patton cleared his throat feeling emotion building there,"One year ago today I got my acceptance letter to this school. So I've been feeling things... about my mom. This is also the one year anniversary of when she kicked me out."

"Oh that's fun." Dee said, by which he of course meant, 'I'm sorry that you're dealing with that', but Dee was shy and never said things as nicely as he meant to.

"I'm gonna spend the whole day doing this she would disprove of to remind myself that I'm grown up now. Wanna come with?"

"Would I ever want to go participate in your belated act of teen rebellion?" Dee said wrinkling his nose. When he said this he meant 'Are you sure you want me to come along?'

Patton shrugged, "Well I mean, you don't have to I just-"

"No fuck you. Yes of course I would want to come with." Dee meant exactly what he said.

Patton laughed, "Alright then. We're going shopping."

They got ready and left. Patton directed them to a clothing store. 

"Okay what's happening here? What are we looking for that's somehow rebellious?"

"Yeah I should probably tell you, there's no reason to skirt the issue anymore…" Patton punned.

Dee sighed, "You're here for a skirt aren't you?"

"Yep!"

Dee groaned, which mean he thought Patton was funny, but would never admit it in a million years.

"She didn't let you wear skirts?"

"Nope." Patton shrugged. If he was honest though it had always been really frustrating for him because he always liked showing off his legs and she ruled out skirts firmly.

Dee looked mildly disinterested but his voice betrayed his anger, "Well then we'll just have to buy you the best skirt."

Patton grinned. They spent the next hour trying on skirts. Patton offered to buy one for Dee too but Dee said skirts were never his thing. 

As they stood in the checkout line Dee said, "You know when you said we were doing rebellion shopping this was not what I expected."

“What did you expect?”

“For some reason I expected to be doing something cooler than shopping for skirts…”

“Well if it helps, I’m not done rebelling yet.” Patton smiled already planning his next act as adult.

“Good what do you have in mind?’

~Twenty minutes later~

“Seriously? This is what we’re doing? How is this rebellious?!” Dee demanded quietly as they stood just outside of Virgil’s closed bedroom door.

Patton pulled him back a few steps away from the door and crossed his arms as he leveled a disapproving glare at Dee. “It's my rebellion, I decide what we do. You can choose what we do for your rebellion.”

“‘Making friends with Virgil’ isn’t rebellion.” Dee sounded exasperated.

“It Is! She always made it really difficult to hold on to friends, because she didn’t let me go to anyones’ houses and she insulted any friends who came over to our house. It was really rough, in lost alot of friends over it. So, I’m going to make friends with someone as an act of revolt. If you find that so revolt-ing then you don’t have to do this.”

“No I wanna help.” Dee said, defeated.

“Great! Let's do it!”

“Wait, are you really going to do this dress like that?” Dee said a slight smile creeping onto his face.

Patton looked down at his outfit, he had changed into his new skirt as soon as they got home, "Is there something wrong?" 

Dee had on a mischievous smirk, "No no please, I wanna see how this goes."

Patton looked at him doubtfully and walked slowly toward Virgil's door and knocked gently. 

A few moments later it swung open and reveal Virgil who had probably just woken up. Patton felt a pang of guilt for waking him. Virgil looked at him and blinked several times and then started looking everywhere Except Patton. 

Maybe he had a problem with eye contact.

"Hey, Virgil we were going to watch a movie and we were wondering if you would want to Movie on out here and join us?" Patton asked brightly. He wanted to make this work cuz it was getting awkward living with a guy they barely knew. 

"Oh um okay, yeah sure. I'm gonna have to leave in an hour and a half though so yeah." Virgil's eyes were fixed on his own nails now.

"Oh that's alright we just won't choose a long one!" Patton assured him.

Patton turned and saw Dee with a hand over his mouth trying to hide a quiet laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Just... your amazing pun." Dee chuckled. Patton was almost certain that was a lie.

Patton glanced back at Virgil whose was beet red. Had Patton embarrassed him somehow?

"You know the two of you confuse me sometimes." Patton said shaking his head and walking over to the couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was basically just some good old fashioned fluff, I almost thought I forgot how to write it  
And there was of course perhaps a hint of blooming romance?  
Or unresolved angsty pining  
You know, whatever.


	4. He Seems Very Polite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! Hit the one week goal again  
Ngl I feel pretty good bout that  
Please have have some shenanigans and overly complicated solutions to minor problems
> 
> Oh and warning!  
Sexual innuendo, death threats (they don't mean it), and weapons

Virgil could not believe he was doing this. This was a stupid stupid move. He could get recognized. He was risking everything and for what? His reputation? Why he got into a line of work where reputation mattered was beyond him. He did have a good reason for being such an idiot though.

Logan had texted him today. It was the first time in quite a while and all Virgil got was a link and seven words, "You may need to raise the stakes." 

Logan had barely talked to him since January for god's sake and now all he said was a link and told Virgil what to do? No "how have you been?", no "how's your night job going?", no "I'm sorry I've ignored every text you've sent since march." It was just a link and what amounted to an order.

Virgil clicked it. It was a news report.

"This is Alia Pomwell reporting live from the scene of the latest battle between The Knight and known criminal, Deimos. Both parties have long since vacated the scene and once again leave all of us Normal citizens with burning questions." The use of the word "normal" made Virgil's skin crawl. 

"One such question is that of how much danger we're in. Deimos has been at large for months and has yet to be proven a threat to anyone except the Knight. Is it possible he's cooking up more sinister plans? It also makes us question how mentally stable these superhumans are and if we should be entrusting our safety to one."

Virgil felt his stomach drop. 

Oh no

"In the past year we have seen a seemingly never ending wave of trouble makers and along with it has been a spike in thefts, and more nighttime disturbances. The few victories for the side of the law were bittersweet ending in a dangerous escaped prisoner and the death of a wanted criminal. Is there a way to stop these neferious characters from flocking together in our streets or is it time for the city to invest in psychiatric help for these so called 'superhumans'?" 

Virgil saw in her eyes what she really wanted to call them. It was what most people called them. 

Monsters. Let's face it no one saw them as people. They feared them. They might as well be honest and call them monsters 

"More on this story as it develops." She concluded as if she hadn't just sounded the trumpets of war against every superhuman in the city.

She was even going after Roman who has thus far been viewed as the best of them. Roman had been what kept the image of superhumans as not being inherently evil. If Roman was losing the people's trust what chance did the rest of them have?

They needed Roman to remain perfect in the public eye and the way to do that was to as Logan suggested up his game. All he needed to do was make himself look terrible and scary and Roman would look brave and heroic for facing him.

So that's how he ended up here, about to do something so dumb that it made the rest of his actions seem brilliant.

He was in costume standing on his own fire escape. He raised a hand and knocked on the window. Patton, who had been sitting in the living room crocheting, looked up, and his eyes grew wide. He stood and walked toward the window.

Patton pulled out his phone and started typing, he turned the screen for Virgil to see. 

“Who are you and what do you want?”

At least Patton was cautious. He pulled out his own phone, opened the notepad, and typed back.

“My name is Deimos. I don’t mean to scare you, but may we talk?”

Patton looked at him doubtfully and held up one finger in a “wait a moment” gesture. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife they had and came back to the window opening it only a crack and sliding the tip of the knife through. Virgil fought back a smile. 

“You should know that I'm prepared to defend myself." Patton said, his hand shaking as he gripped the knife.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with me." Virgil said allowing his voice to drift lower than he usual spoke giving his voice a deeper calmer quality. He had practiced his words a dozen times in the shower, unwilling to risk making a fool of himself. He just had to sound calm or he would seem like a crazy person.

"You're welcome. You're the villain guy right?" Patton asked doubtfully.

"Yes, technically. I'm in business with your friend Logan, he enlisted me to help in the cover up surrounding the supposed death of Fae and the subsequent need to keep the Knight out of trouble." Virgil said spitting out his well rehearsed script.

"And why are you here? There's nothing and no one related to any of that around here." Patton said quickly. A little too quickly. Was Virgil scaring him?

"Actually I am here to uh ask for help… your help."

"Me? What do you need My help for?"

Virgil shrugged, "The Knight has been known multiple times to save you from danger. At this point you’re the only possible connection I could make to someone he would care about."

"What?"

"Look.” Virgil inhaled deeply, “Logan just wants me to keep an eye on the Knight and keep him interested enough that he doesn't go looking for real trouble. I rough him up, but I wouldn't kill him like most criminals in this city would. Believe me, if I wanted to, I could have. Unfortunately, the news station is starting to pick on people with powers including the Knight and we need him to stay popular with the public. I need to appear more threatening to keep the Knight in everyone’s good graces. You could help me do that."

Patton looked at him doubtfully, "You're really not being the Dei-most descriptive here."

Virgil ignored the pun, "I was wondering if you would please play along if I pretended to have kidnapped you, so that the Knight would have to come save you? You would just have to come with me and he would show up and you just play damsel."

Patton was quiet for a few long moments.

"You're awfully polite you know?" Patton said with a thoughtful look. He opened the window another few inches.

"There’s no need for me to be rude, I'm asking for a favor." Virgil shrugged.

"Just for tonight? I don’t think doing this one time would be enough to get much attention." Patton had a point.

"No, more like a once or twice weekly thing." Virgil said.

"Before I decide... shake my hand." Patton demanded, he opened the window the rest of the way and stuck his hand out to Virgil.

Odd, but Virgil was in no position to judge what was and wasn’t an odd request. He shook Patton’s hand.

Virgil felt Patton relax as soon as their hands touched.

Patton smiled brightly as he pulled away, "Alright, I trust you, I'll do it. But I do have some things I want promised first."

"Anything." Virgil said, sounding more serious than he had intended to.

"First you have to promise that you'll protect me if anyone attacks us or they try to arrest me."

"Of course. It's not like I'd just let them cart you to jail. I doubt they’ll realize your on my side anyway."

"Second you have to only kidnap me on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, because those are the nights I have off from work."

"Fair enough, anything else?"

"Just one last thing. You have to promise to talk to me while we wait for the Knight to come save me. I don't just want to stand around on roofs and alleyways being bored while we wait for him to show up."

That one was harder, but Virgil didn't blame him for not want to just stand around doing nothing. It was just a question of if Virgil could handle talking to Patton without making himself look like an idiot.

"Okay, you got it." The words left Virgil's mouth before he could stop them.

"Okay cool, let's go then." Patton put the knife back where it belonged and joined Virgil out on the fire escape.

"Alright I generally meet him downtown so if we head that way it's probably the best place to start. Now if it makes you more comfortable we can just walk over there, but if you wanna get there faster, I can carry you and we can use my speed."

"I don't think you could carry me I’m much taller than you, I’m probably too heavy." Patton laughed gently. 

"Yeah I could, say the word and we'll be there in two minutes flat." Virgil rolled his eyes, this whole people thinking he was weak because he was short thing was wild.

"I mean, you could try…" 

Virgil turned around and held out his arms, indicating that Patton should hop on. Patton wrapped his arms around Virgil's neck and hopped onto his back.

Virgil wrapped his arms around Patton's thighs to keep him in place, "Ready?"

"Oh! Uh Yeah." Patton sounded surprised.

Virgil grinned, "Then hold on tight."

He took off down the stairs of the fire escape. Patton let out a small squeak and tightened his grip on Virgil. 

As soon as they reached the ground Virgil was gone.

There was nothing like sprinting across long flat expanses of road. He felt the wind tearing at his clothes. A laugh ripped it's way out of his throat, getting lost in the wind as soon as it left him. He felt his feet against the asphalt. It was a feeling that he had fallen in love with over the past few months. 

Running was everything. Which made no sense because it was just running but it feel weirdly good when you had superhuman level endurance. For so many years he had some as little physical activity as possible but this was all he wanted to do these days. Run, fight, laugh fiercely.

And Patton was there and that may have made it just a little better.

Then he came to a stop in the area that they usually got into it. He let Patton down.

"That was Fast." Patton's hair was everywhere.

"Heh yeah, that's kinda my thing, well part of my thing, I'm strong too, but I use my speed more."

"So when you fight the Knight you're fast and he's furious?" Patton laughed.

Virgil chuckled, "Yeah I guess you could say that."

"So when do you think he's going to show up?"

"Eh ten- fifteen minutes? Not long. Sorry for the inconvenience, I hope I didn't interrupt anything important."

"Oh I was just watching TV," Patton said waving his hand dismissively. 

He paused, "...Hey if I'm supposed to be kidnapped shouldn't I be like… tied up or something?"

"Oh shit!" Virgil forgot that part. "I didn't even consider that…"

What could he do? Should he hold onto Patton so it looked like he couldn't get away?

"Oh wait!" Patton's eyes lit up with an idea "I have something that would work if we could go back to my apartment real quick. I understand if you're too tired, though." 

Virgil smirked, "I'm nowhere Near tired, let's go." He turned and Patton hopped back onto his back, more comfortably this time. Like he was already getting used to this.

As they took off it was Patton's laughs that were carried away on the wind this time. Patton said something, but Virgil couldn't hear it over the rush of air.

"What?!" He shouted back.

Patton leaned forward to speak into Virgil's ear, "I said, this is amazing!"

Virgil felt his cheeks heat up and tried to convince himself it was just the warm summer air.

The run was over all too soon.

Virgil came to a stop outside their living room window and waited patiently as Patton went inside. He watched through the window as Patton went into his room, shutting the door behind him. Virgil was starting to wonder what Patton was planning.

About thirty second later Patton emerge from his room, onto the fire escape, holding a set of handcuffs. It took several moments for Virgil’s brain to start functioning again.

“Um d- why- why do you just have a pair of handcuffs?” Virgil blinked rapidly. 

Of course Virgil could think of a few very good reasons for a person to just casually have a pair of handcuffs, but that was surely not the reason. It Was Not the reason, Virgil Insisted to himself, forcibly dragging his mind out of the gutter.

Patton put his hands on his hips and gave Virgil a disapproving look, "Kink shaming is no way to begin a friendship. You know perfectly well why I have these, but they're helpful right now so we're gonna use them."

"Kink shaming?!" Virgil sputtered. Virgil was very much not kink shaming here, he was just doing his best to not think of that picture. "I don't- I'm not- I'm… sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

"Its okay. I'll still help because I said I would and my word is my bond… age." Patton grinned.

Virgil made a small choking noise, "Let's just go." He said impatiently. And they went

So they were back at their waiting place and Patton was casually placing the key in his pocket and cuffing himself.

"Alright I gotta get to work. You ready?" Virgil asked.

"Sure okay." 

"Great." Virgil stepped out of the shadow into the light of the street lamps, "CITIZENS."

He waited for the people around him to stop and look.

"CALL THE KNIGHT IMMEDIATELY OR THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME HIS LITTLE FRIEND IS EVER SEEN AGAIN." Virgil guided Patton to stand next to him. He rested his hand on Patton's arm just above his elbow.

"Oh I didn't know you were going to threaten to kill me." Patton said quietly, sounding mildly surprised.

"Sorry." Virgil murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

"Oh no that's alright, you're doing great." Patton said reassuringly. "Should I act scared?"

"Yeah, if you want." Virgil said expecting Patton to just change his facial expression.

Patton screamed. He threw himself downward and tugging away and the only thing that kept him from smacking his head on the curb was Virgil's grip on his arm.

"Help!" Patton shrieked, convincingly.

"THATS ENOUGH." Virgil said, pretending to jerk Patton back up to his feet. In reality with a little compliance from Patton he gently guided him back to standing.

"Let him go!" A woman nearby shouted.

"Walking." Virgil whispered as warning, then stomped toward her with his teeth bared. 

"You're brave." Virgil growled, "You want him? Be my guest take him. It would probably make my night easier." This was very true.

The woman hesitated as Virgil expected. If there was anything he had learned these months it was that everyone wanted to help but the would invariably shut down when faced with panic.

The woman said nothing more.

"That's what I thought. Now if you don't mind too much I'll be getting back to my job?" Virgil said softly, almost politely.

The woman was still frozen and said nothing more. Virgil nodded backing up slowly. 

Once they were out of earshot Patton whispered, "How'd you know she'd back off?"

"Fear is kinda my specialty." Virgil spoke out of the corner of his mouth. "When your whole job is making a man with godlike powers scared you learn how to elicit panic and how people react to it."

Virgil was kinda worried how Patton would react to all this. This was the most successful interaction they had ever had and that was mostly due to the fact that Virgil was distracted most of the time they spent together by running. 

"That's very impressive." Patton said with a comforting surety.

Virgil felt a warm sense of pride sink through his body. Patton thought something he did was impressive. That was… cool.

The warm feeling in Virgil's chest withered as a shadow fell over them. He looked up. Roman. It was show time then. 

"As if standing in my way every night wasn't enough, now this affront directly to the face of justice? Taking an innocent into this?"

"When have I cared for justice?" Virgil bit back dramatically.

"I had thought that even villains had Some moral code. Patton has he hurt you?"

"Deimos?" Patton murmured, almost silently, clearly unsure of how to respond to Roman.

"Go ahead " Virgil whispered quickly.

"I'm okay…" Patton said.

"I haven't done a thing to him, you should feel lucky that he got here so fast." Virgil said directing the last part at Patton. 

"DON'T THREATEN HIM WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Roman demanded loudly.

Virgil let out a loud bellowing laugh, "Why don't you try to stop me?"

"You don't understand. This man is Protected. I cannot let anything happen to him. Just hand him over and I'll let this go. You'll already have kidnapping charges on your record, you definitely don't want this guy's guardian angel after you." Roman said seriously.

"You're calling yourself his guardian angel?" Virgil laughed.

"No, Deimos. It's someone far more frightening than me. If he finds out about this you're not guaranteed to live much longer." 

Virgil cast a sidelong glance at Patton, Patton had an apologetic look on his face. 

Had Patton lead him into some sort of trap??

"What sort of protector?"

Roman's voice sounded a little broken, "The kind that does damn near anything to protect the people he cares about."

Virgil knew how dangerous those people were, hell he Was one of those people. He hadn't planned for this.

"Well then we'd better let him go until I'm ready to do some real damage eh?" Virgil turned Patton away and faced him. 

He pretended to start unlocking the cuffs as Patton actually did it.

"Guardian angel?" Virgil growled under his breath. "I thought we were in this together."

Patton looked apologetic,"We are. Just please meet me later? I'll explain."

"This better be good." He took the cuffs out of Patton's hands.

Virgil turned Patton back to Roman. He slid the cuff into Patton's back pocket, and gently pushed Patton toward Roman. Patton fake stumbled into Roman, really selling the effect.

"Run along, call the police, I'm sure they're going to be interested in hearing about your evening. I'll be seeing you Patton."

Roman drew his sword, "You'll be leaving him alone." 

"Says who? You? This angel?" Virgil laughed as if he didn't clearly have his whole plan crash and burn in a matter of seconds. 

"No, rest assured that the next time the three of us meet I will be better prepared."

"I Hate you." Roman said his voice full of anger.

Virgil grimaced, "That's the idea." 

And Virgil pounced.

***

Virgil limped slowly to his own apartment still dressed in his Deimos clothes. He didn't have the ability to run tonight. He got distracted by Patton getting swarmed with reporters and Roman had slammed the butt of his sword into the back of Virgil's knee, causing him to crumple painfully to the ground.

So it was going to take a little while to get there. It was almost one AM by the time he got he made it home and this wasn't even his last stop tonight. 

He managed to pull himself together enough to climb up the fire escape with super speed. 

The lights in the living room were still glowing warmly through the window. Patton was sitting on the end of the couch closest to the window. 

He was waiting up for Virgil.

Knock knock knock. Virgil tapped on the window pane gently. Patton looked up and his face broke into a smile.

He set his yarn to the side and scampered closer to the window opening it.

"Hey! So I’m really sorry about earlier I didn’t even think about it. I'll explain the protector thing in a second. Also I told the reporter that… wait…" Patton smile slid from his face slowly. "Deimos you're bleeding." He lifted his fingers, hovering near Virgil's face, looking with concern at Virgil's split lip. 

"Its nothing," Virgil said honestly, swiping at it with his sleeve.

"I thought you couldn't get hurt…"

"I'm fast and strong, not invincible."

"I just… thought you were fast enough to avoid getting hurt. Are you hurt in other places?"

Virgil avoided answering by asking, "What did you tell the reporters?"

"I told them you carried me off suddenly from my apartment earlier tonight and brought me there with handcuffs. I just really don't like lying so I did my best…"

"That was good, you did good, thank you. Now if you don't mind me asking, who in the hell is this guardian angel of yours and am I in danger?"

"As Fae-t would have it he wasn't out and about tonight so you're safe for now. I'll talk to him to make sure he knows that I agreed to it."

"That was weird emphasis on the word 'fate'."

"Yeah cuz my protector is um... Fae." Patton said nervously.

"I uh… isn't- isn't he dead?" Virgil said wondering if Patton was feeling okay. Didn’t everyone think Fae was dead except for him Logan and Roman?.

"No he faked his death and you can't tell anyone because it's all part of Logan's plan you know? And he still goes out and does Fae things he just does it anonymously."

Virgil knew that but why did Patton?

Virgil played surprised, "I guess that explains the string of seemingly random thefts that they keep bringing up on the news…"

"Wait... Why is he your protector?" Virgil said suddenly process the extent of Patton's words.

"We're friends." Patton said. "The night that that Remus guy started making trouble Fae saved me and brought me home and we became friends. But it's okay he wouldn't hurt you!"

Patton sounded like those zoologists who let wolves bite their faces as a show of affection and told everyone else that it was perfectly normal.

"Are you sure?" Virgil said, glancing nervously over his shoulder as if Fae could appear at any moment. 

"I'm at least eighty percent sure. He's a little chaotic sometimes so…" Patton didn't finish his statement.

"... Alright" Virgil said nodding slowly. "In that case I've just got one more thing to talk to you about."

"Okay." Patton said another smile slipping onto his face.

Virgil took a deep breath, he had been planning this speech on the way over and it sucked but they needed to talk about it. "Thank you for your help tonight, but are you sure you want to do this again? This could be dangerous and I understand if you don't want to give your evenings up to help some random criminal on your nights off and this has all been really weird. Just don't even worry about it, I'd leave you alone and never bother you aga-"

"Deimos," Patton interrupted, "Tonight was fun. See you on Monday?" 

Virgil fought the smile that wanted to make its way onto his face, "Yeah, sure, Monday." And he turned to start climbing down the stairs.

***

With work, school, and Roman, Monday came significantly faster than he expected.

He was sitting on his bedroom floor meticulously doing his makeup when he heard Patton and Dee speaking in the kitchen. Their tones were hushed and secretive. Virgil made his way to the door and cracked it open silently, straining to hear what they said.

"Why won't you tell me who you're going out with? I would tell you who I was going on a date with if I got one." Dee said mopily. 

A date??? But wait weren't they supposed to do the thing tonight. Virgil glanced at his outfit laid out on the bed which he may or may not have washed have ironed tonight. Did Patton forget?

"Because you would disapprove of who it is. Plus it's not a date, I didn't say it was, I just said I'd be going out." Patton responded. Oh wait they were talking about him! Virgil felt a big stupid smile try to make it’s way onto his face, he pushed it down.

"Please tell me who it is. I won't judge." Dee promised. 

"Fine, its the, as you insist on calling him, 'muscle-bound thug'" Through the crack in the door Virgil saw the defiant way Patton crossed his arms.

‘Muscle-bound thug’? Where had Dee even seen him to form this opinion? The pictures on the news were too blurry for Dee to be able to tell how much or little muscle Virgil had. Virgil didn’t think he had a chance to piss Dee off as Deimos.

"You’re dating him of all people?!" Dee gasped. Damn that was kinda rude.

"You said you wouldn't judge!" Patton exclaimed. "And we're not dating!" 

"I lied! Patton he's dangerous!" 

"No, he's been very polite. Plus Logan hired him, why would Logan have hired someone dangerous?"

"I dont know!" Dee snapped. Virgil saw dee start pacing back and forth.

Dee took a breath before continuing more calmly, "I can't and won't try to stop you. You're an adult and you make your own decisions. But please, just tell me what you could possibly be doing with him?"

"Can you keep a secret? I need you to answer me honestly Dee, I can't tell you unless you keep it secret."

Dee sighed, defeatedly, "Fine what one more secret?" 

"He pretends to kidnap me to look evil. The first time we did it was last Thursday."

"Pretends to… why didn't you tell me?" Dee sounded almost hurt now. This was getting awkward.

"I wanted to, but I didn't know how to bring it up, I figured you would see in the news and You would bring it up..." Patton trailed off guiltily.

"I've been busy with the paper the past few days, haven't had time to watch the news." 

"I'm sorry... I was scared you'd be mad at me."

"Even if I was, me being mad at you wouldn't be the end of the world. Why are you so scared of that?"

Patton didn't answer.

"Oh yes of course because I’m obviously Just like her. I would end our entire relationship because I’m a little mad. I’m That stupid and childish."

"I'm sorry, I just felt bad because I did it as another rebellion thing and we were doing those things together and I didn't want you to feel left out so I didn't tell you about the rebellion stuff I did without you."

"Stuff? What else was there?"

"I bought a pair of handcuffs!" Patton said his brighter tone returning.

"You could have kept that one to yourself."

Virgil was suddenly reminded that he was eavesdropping on a private conversation. He awkwardly shut the door and went back to getting ready.

***

And hour later Virgil stood on the fire escape of the floor below them he smoothed out his hair, made sure his mask was in place, adjusted his vest. His coat had been left in his room in favor of the cooler option. Virgil was glad Logan had the foresight to realize it would get too hot to wear the coat once summer hit, but Virgil was a little self conscious wearing this for the first time.

"Alright I guess it’s time." He sighed, steeling his nerves. He climbed to their floor and knocked on the window. Dee and Patton were standing in the middle of the living room. Patton was wearing a button up with a bow tie and Dee was adjusting the tie for Patton. 

Their heads turned in unison to look out the window. Dee scowled. Patton skipped over to the windows and threw it open.

"Hey!" 

"Hi, ready to go?"

"Yeah I got the cuffs too!" Patton gestured to his bracelet. 

Virgil realized it wasn't a bracelet, but both of the cuffs locked around one wrist. It didn't particularly Look like a bracelet but Virgil hadn't had a chance to look at Patton's wrists for a particularly long time.

"Is your friend cool?" Virgil said nodding in Dee's direction.

"Oh yeah he can keep a secret, he was just helping me Tie up loose ends with getting dressed." Patton said tugging proudly at the bowtie. 

Virgil took the hint, "You look very nice Patton, but uh why are you so dressed up?"

"I _told_ you it was too much." Dee said casually.

Patton shot Dee a glare. "I was nervous to go on the news again and this outfit makes me feel powerful.”

"You're adorable." Dee said voicing what both he and Virgil had been thinking.

“That’s a cool vest! Won’t your arms get hurt being uncovered like that while you’re fighting?”  
“Eh, It’ll be fine.” Virgil shrugged feeling very exposed.

“Okie dokie, if you say so.”

An awkward silence fell over the three of them.

"Okay bye Dee!" Patton said abruptly. "I'll be home around… hey when will I be home?" Patton looked at Virgil, tilting his head to the side

"Um no later than like one thirty?" Virgil said.

"Make sure he gets home safe." Dee said with a smile. There was a threat in his voice, it ran as an undercurrent to his joking tone. Virgil got the feeling that Dee wasn't joking at all. 

"Mmmkay." Virgil managed. 

He helped Patton out the window. He turned so Patton could climb onto his back as they had done the night before. As he slid his arms around Patton legs just above his knees Virgil was struck with just how much the universe must hate him. If there was a god out there who was responsible for putting Virgil through the living hell that was this moment Virgil would like to have a word.

Whose idea was it to make him carry the guy he adored so close to him for such a long distance. Who thought that was a good idea??

Oh wait that had been him.

"Ready?" Virgil said his voice a little strained.

"Let's do it." 

And they were off. Virgil tried to focus on running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah so it begins  
Make no mistake darlings this Will be a slow burn  
Its yet to be seen if I know how to write romance that isn't slow burn


	5. Need More Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow if I'm not careful I might actually become a consistent updater  
So I posted chapter 5 and 6 today and they really were one chapter and go together but together they were nearly 6k words and that seemed excessive  
The titles of these chapters come from the song Save Rock and Roll by fall out boy  
Which I think just kinda fits these and the last two or three chapters

Patton held on tightly with his arms wrapped around Deimos' shoulders. He was becoming quite aware that Deimos was really muscular. Like okay, it was one thing for Patton to deal with being carried by a strong guy but the guy actually _Looking_ strong?? Why was his self-control being tested?

"Okay back there?" Deimos asked slowing down somewhat so he could hear Patton.

"I am okie dokie," Patton said brightly. He was, in fact, better than okie dokie cuz Deimos was cute!

"Why do you ask?" Patton smiled.

"You look a little panicked."

"Maybe I am Pan-icking a little, but I'm good!" 

"If you say so," Deimos said, missing the pun. 

He sped back up and they were there soon.

They stopped on a corner where Logan's lab was in sight down the block. There was one of those wavy bike racks, so Patton grabbed the bar and pushed himself up onto it, balancing on the rounded top.

Deimos shrugged and did the same three bars down.

"Soooo… come here often?" Patton asked pointing to Logan's lab.

"Pfft sounds like an old-timey pick-up line."

Patton definitely meant it to.

"At least I didn't ask you if it hurt when you fell from heaven." Patton joked trying to not smile like a dork. "But really, do you?"

Deimos chuckled, "Yeah we usually fight in this area because this is where he patrols. There's a lot of petty theft and muggings in this area at night so I come here cuz I know he will. Logan's lab just happens to be in the area ya know? Before I took the job he used to patrol closer toward the river, but I think he's afraid of the water now cuz he stays as far away from the bridge as possible."

Oh, Patton was pretty he knew why. But it was better to not bring that up so he changed the subject.

"How 'bout you? Are you afraid of the water?"

"Me? Nah, there's better shit to be afraid than drowning. Plus I've always been a strong swimmer."

"Better things to be afraid of? I thought you were fearless." Patton teased gently "Water you scared of?"

"That joke was Real bad dude." Deimos shook his head with a smile, "I dunno I guess my fears are a bit more rational these days. I'm worried about things like being murdered or having my identity revealed or making a fool of myself in front of you or the Knight. All of which are things that could happen on any given night so there's really nothing for it but to face it you know?"

"You know the first two things are a lot worse than the last one," Patton said frowning.

"No no, I stand by the fact that the greatest danger is public humiliation. Um, how about you? I told you my fears which admittedly probably wasn't a good idea because like that would probably help you identify me if you wanted to get me arrested or something, but like, too late. So tell me what are you afraid of?"

"I'm not gonna turn you in," Patton said waving away the concern for how ridiculous it was. He thought for a moment before deciding to follow suit and say what he really was afraid of. "And um well I'm afraid of spiders, being unlovable, and blood."

"One of these things is not like the others," Deimos said in a sing-song tone.

"I know blood is a weird thing to be afraid of right? Oddly enough I'm becoming a nurse." Patton said conveniently ignoring what Deimos was obviously talking about. "But you know can't let a little fear stop ya."

Deimos snorted, "Well we're a cheerful duo, aren't we? Or more like Fearful, I guess." 

Patton giggled he would soon corrupt everyone's sense of humor with puns, "Well here let's lighten things up. What's your favorite color?"

"Black, like my soul," Deimos said with a clearly fake brooding expression.

Patton squinted at him suspiciously, "Hmm well I'm detecting a b-lack of enthusiasm for that color. I bet your favorite color is actually yellow or something." 

Deimos sighed, "I like purple but as a villain, I am legally obligated to at least try and pretend to not have feelings."

"I hate to break it to you, but you're not doing a very good job."

"I don't know how to feel about that answer." Deimos frowned.

"Probably happy, there's no reason to act heartless when the news cameras aren't on you."

Deimos smiled a little and Patton felt his stomach drop, he looked so beautiful in the warm glow of the lamplight.

"What's your favorite color, Pat?" He asked. Patton grinned at the nickname.

"Blue, but not like dark blue. Blue like the color that they make blue raspberry candy you know?"

"That's a good color, but now I'm just thinking about candy." Deimos laughed slightly. 

Patton could tell it wasn't often that Deimos laughed this much, but it was so nice to hear. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts. He probably should have been focused on the conversation and not on how dreamy Deimos was. 

What had he said? Candy?

"What kinda candy do you like?" Patton asked keeping with the theme of asking a buncha random questions.

"Okay, not even trying to be edgy, I like dark chocolate. You just kinda let it melt in your mouth and you don't need like four bars of it you know? It's just like that little bit and it's good. Other than that though I don't usually like a lot of sugar. How about you?"

"I usually love candy, but I don't want any right now," Patton said not able to resist the opening for a joke.

"Oh? Why's that?" Deimos asked, giving him a look out of the corner of his eye.

"Well, I'm already hanging out with someone who's pretty sweet."

Deimos coughed into his hand to hide a laugh and if Patton wasn't wrong he may have been blushing a little under all that makeup and the mask.

"Oh look at the time! Maybe I should um go stand by the road just in case the Knight can't see me back here." Deimos still had the remains of a smile on his face.

Patton shrugged and smiled, "Okay." 

As Deimos stepped out closer to the road, Patton undid one of the cuffs from around his wrist and put it on the opposite side, locking himself up. He slid the key in his pocket again.

Admittedly volunteering to be handcuffed during all of this was not Patton's best idea because as much as he was embarrassed to admit it he had not considered the fact that a pretty cute guy was going to be holding onto him and whispering in his ear the whole time he wore them. And then Deimos had reached into his pocket to unlock them…

Patton was not proud of himself and where his kind drifted okay? But he was only human. 

Despite all that, it was pretty fun playing along with the whole damsel in distress thing. Wait were damsels only girls? He'd have to Google that later.

Once he was cuffed he walked forward to stand next to Deimos. 

Deimos must not have heard him walk up because as soon as his eyes landed on Patton he inhaled sharply saying, "Oh Jesus-" But cut himself off.

Deimos took a slow breath, "Glad to see you're ready." He turned back to gazing down the nearly empty street.

"So can I ask a question?" Patton asked even though he had already asked a whole bunch of questions.

"Of course," Deimos said staring resolutely into the distance.

"What do you want me to say on the news?" 

"Well, that's kinda tough when you don't like lying… how about this I'll monologue at the Knight about some plan that I had to kill you with a laser, but then I decided I wanted him to see it and not be able to stop me to make him suffer or something dramatic like that."

Deimos thought for a moment, "Then I could pick you up with an arm around your waist and pretend to try and take you to wherever this fake place is and I'll let him stop me and save you. That way he'll end up doing the talking on the news and you can just tell the reporters how awful this was. After they all clear out I'll come to grab you and take you home." 

That was a pretty good plan.

"It sounds mostly like it'll work but I don't like lying why would I tell them this was awful?" Patton asked with a smile.

Deimos turned to look at him I'm disbelief, "Why are you okay with any of this? For Christ's sake, you volunteered to wear handcuffs just for the sake of the act. Most people would only do this because they felt obligated to for the Knight, but like, you're being weirdly calm through all of this."

"Sometimes you just gotta have fun with the crazy directions your life is going. Sure two weeks ago I wouldn't have expected to be doing this with my evenings, but the fact is I am so might as well make a friend out of it." Patton said with a small nod.

"Fair enou- oh shit he's here!" Deimos exclaimed, his body seeming suddenly rigid with tension.

Patton offered his elbow. Deimos hesitated a moment and placed his hand gently on Patton's arm. Patton found it funny the way Deimos kept touching and picking him up like he was made of glass.

Patton started focusing on not affecting Deimos. He had started getting better at multitasking with this. Now he could usually touch people without them being affected at all while doing something else. 

He did still get a lot of feedback on what they were feeling, but he was pretty sure there was no way to stop that. Right now there was excitement coursing through Deimos. He really did enjoy this, didn't he?

The Knight landed and it went just as Deimos had said it would. The dramatic monologue about fake plans, the running down the block with Patton in his arms. Once the Knight saved him Patton pretended to struggle to get out of the cuffs while the two of them kept fighting for a while. Then he pulled out the key and undid them. Admittedly it was an awkward angle to bend your hand at but Patton didn't want someone else taking his handcuffs as evidence so he needed to have them off before the Knight came back over.

They ended up fighting in front of Logan's lab, occasionally shouting things that Patton was too far away to hear. Deimos kept dodging just out of reach of the Knight's blade. Then he would dance closer and landed a few punches to the Knight's body, before ducking away again just in time. Deimos did this low sweeping kick that sent the knight toppling to the ground, but Patton knew The Knight would win in the end. Even if it was just because Deimos was letting him win.

How did Dee call this just a fistfight? The way Dee had described it he expected it to be boring and violent to watch. But this… it was like when you see birds fighting and you're concerned for their health, but also it looks really cool the way they occasionally topple through the air before flapping their wings again and stabilizing. 

You know they'll both come out of it okay but for the time you kinda just wanna watched the elegant movements take place without intervening.

Soon it was over, Deimos ran off, and the Knight flew toward Patton.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be okay." Patton gave him a smile.

They started walking toward the news van's who had left them plenty of room.

"It must be tough getting kidnapped like this especially after that incident where Fae had to carry you home. I'm sorry that I failed to stop Deimos before he did it again."

"Oh, you don't have to be. You're doing your best and honestly, I don't think he could hurt me." Patton said quite honestly.

"Well I appreciate the faith in my ability to save you, but frankly I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you. Was he really going to kill you with a laser?" 

"That's what he said isn't?" Patton said nervously.

The knight misinterpreted his discomfort, "Oh I'm sorry that was terribly callous of me! Of course, you don't want to talk about that. I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable Patton."

"It's alright, Knight," Patton assured him.

There were a few seconds of loaded silence between them.

"So have you heard from my old enemy?" Knight asked in a tone that was probably supposed to seem uninterested.

"Yes." 

"I don't suppose you might tell me where I could find him?"

"I'm sorry, I can't. Well, I could, but I shouldn't."

"You won't." The Knight's voice was tinged with frustration.

"No, I won't, but do you want me to take him a message?" 

Patton wasn't heartless! He wanted the two of them to be able to be… whatever they were. He just couldn't promise The Knight a meeting with Dee. Dee had made it clear he had no intention of seeking The Knight out anymore, he was trying to move on.

"Tell him that… tell him…" The Knight sighed, "Please tell him nothing of this conversation. It's better if he doesn't know I was inquiring after him."

Patton gave him a sympathetic look, "It's not easy, this thing we all got going on huh?"

"I don't care about easy, I just wish feelings were less _complicated_." He said shaking his head.

Patton caught sight of Deimos standing in an alley concealed mostly by shadow, waiting to take him home. 

"Feelings are never simple Mr. Knight."

***

Virgil slumped through their front door and collapsed in the chair next to Roman at the table. 

Roman was already cleaning up. 

"You're later than usual," Roman remarked trying not to let it show that it bothered him.

It was just that when one came to expect an activity to happen at one forty-five, and one _Ran_ up the stairs to make it in time, only to be left waiting for half an hour there was a certain degree of offense that was going to be taken.

Virgil grimaced apologetically, "Yeah I had to take this guy home… from the gym."

Oh, wait Virgil was actually doing something interesting? Then this was entirely forgivable.

"Oh, a guy?" Roman wiggled his eyebrows "You've never mentioned a guy before."

"Oh put the eyebrows away it's not like that. He's just a guy." Virgil said his bangs falling in his face. Roman didn't believe a word of it. "He uh stays behind after the gym closes some nights and hangs out with me." 

"Is he cute?" Roman said. "He must be cute for you to be trying to be blushing like that."

"I'm not blushing I'm just rosy-cheeked from the workout. And no he's- well yeah he's cute but that's- that's not the point is it?" Virgil wrinkled his nose sarcastically.

"Okay okay sure sure. So is he straight? Is that the problem?"

"Um no I think- I think he's pan," Virgil said shaking his head and refusing to make eye contact.

Roman smirked, "Let's see if I've got this right then. A hot guy who happens to be pan stays behind at the gym until super late at night to hang out with you and watch you work out. Then you take him home? And if you're taking him home then you must have also been the one to drive him there, because he wouldn't want to leave his car there. Please, Virgil, tell me how is this platonic again?"

"Its- it's- okay first of all, all that could be completely platonic!"

"Okay sure it _could_ be, but you wish it wasn't!" Roman pointed out.

"Maybe so." Virgil crossed his arms stubbornly. "Do you think I've got any chance?"

"Oh yeah, totally you're athletic and darkly mysterious. Big vampire vibes. I'd date you if I didn't already know what a dweeb you are."

"Thanks?"

Roman heard the front door open.

"I'm glad you are getting over Patton, pining helplessly isn't a good look on you, my friend." Roman clapped Virgil on the shoulder. 

Then Logan came into the living room.


	6. And Less Life

~Earlier that night ~

Look everyone knows that by taking a job on the night shift you automatically sign up for seeing all sorts of bat shit insane things, but that hadn't really gone into effect until this last year. Things had been pretty chill up until last September.

Remy had enough weird shit in his life, but recently this job took the cake. He missed the days of calmly sipping his coffee and watching the empty downtown streets through the big glass front doors. Unfortunately, he had to keep working here until he graduated, so he was just kinda boned for the next year. Might as well try to make the best of it right?

You’d think that being the nighttime security guard for a university research lab would be quiet, an easy gig, but thanks to the knight and his jolly band of villains he had quite a show to watch every night. And of course, desperately hope that nothing happened that involved the actual building.

See, the lab was situated in just the right place that most nights the Knight’s fights would end practically on the doorstep. Remy didn’t really give a fuck as long as they didn’t touch the building, and most of the time it seemed as if even Fae and Deimos had been carefully avoiding damaging it or causing trouble here. 

That was probably because they were friends with that one student who worked here who Remy fondly referred to as "Science Boy".

Remy had worked nights here since his freshman year, so Science Boy was pretty funny running around like no one would notice all his meetings that involved not only fellow college students but also the city's most wanted criminals. 

Of course, that was none of Remy’s business. If it was his business he would probably have supported what Science Boy was doing, this stuff could use researching. No one was ever gonna stop being afraid of superhumans if they didn’t ever learn about them. Ignorance was Bliss, ignorance was also fuel for unbridled fear.

Remy took a sip of his coffee as he watched the knight slash Deimos’s cheek with his sword through the glass front doors.

“Oh, that’s some bullshit he was catching his breath!” Remy shouted. They both paused and looked at him in confusion.

“I thought you were on my side!” The Knight shouted back. Remy shrugged and the knight gazed on, his disappointment evident even with the helmet. 

Then he shook his head and they resumed fighting. In the distance, Remy could see Patton taking off the handcuffs.

“Who’s there? I heard shouting!” A voice called down the hall. Remy poked his head around the corner to see Science Boy walking down the hall. 

Remy knew he was still here, but when he checked on him twenty minutes ago he had been asleep on a microscope. Remy had decided to leave him alone. He must have woken up when Remy yelled. 

“Just me, security guard. Hey come out here Science Boy, you’ve been working all night, relax, watch two idiots kick each others’ asses for a few minutes.”

“...what?” Science Boy blinked blearily. He walked down the hall and into the reception area.

His eyes flew wide as he stared out the glass doors, “Oh sweet Copernicus! What are they _doing_?” 

Remy shrugged, “They do this every night, it’s no big deal.”

Science Boy looked on with an expression of rapt horror.

"Every night?" He breathed. 

_Oof_ Did he not know what was going on? Remy had been under the impression that he was the ringleader of all this.

Remy glanced around trying to make this better, "Well uh no not like every night sometimes they don't bring that cute one with the freckles and the bowtie. Went to a party with him once, think his name's Patton? Look he's just over there." Remy pointed in Patton's direction.

Science Boy now looked at Remy, "Patton? Why?" He sounded so genuinely confused.

"Deimos kidnaps him, The Knight saves him." Remy tried to play it off like it was no big deal because it looked like this guy was about to lose his shit.

Science Boy's body went tense and he started striding towards the door as if he was going to run out there and stop them. Remy grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Let me go!" He snapped. "I have to make them stop."

"No. Listen, babe, you can hear sirens. The police will be here in like a minute max and when they get here they'll have questions and you and I both know you don't want to be connected to this whole scene yet. You definitely don't want any attention drawn to your research project. They'll break it up soon and they'll both be fine. They always are. But your job is to stay in your lane for now."

"Stay in my lane? I am not driving! What does that have to do with me not rushing out there? And wait what do you know about my research?" Science boy jerked his shoulder out of Remy's grip and back toward the wall.

"Oh my God relax buddy! I'm not outing your friends, I swear. I work here five nights a week so on the nights you fall asleep at your workstation I'll occasionally pop in to check on you and make sure you don't fall out of your chair.”

“You still haven’t told me how you know about my research and why didn’t you wake me if you saw me asleep?”

“If someone is able to fall asleep with their head on a microscope or a laptop, they obviously need the sleep. You always leave your documents sitting out though. So I'll put them all in a pile so no one could take them and a few words caught my eye here or there. I've picked up the gist of what you're looking into. It's a good idea. I would say you probably should have done a full physical for each of them before tracking their bloodlines, but I'm not your mom" 

"Who said I wanted some random man’s opinion?" Science Boy demanded.

"Sweetheart, I'm a junior, I'm going into medicine, and I’ve got straight A's. I'm not just talking out of my ass here. If there's one thing I know, it's that you should always start by doing a physical. That way you know what basic factors you’re working with." Remy rolled his eyes and took a long sip from his coffee.

Science Boy’s eyes held a lotta rage just then, _someone_ didn't like being called out.

Science Boy sighed heavily, “Why do you keep calling me babe and sweetheart?” 

“I call everyone that. If it makes you uncomfortable I can stop.” Remy offered casually.

“No, I suppose it’s fine.” He stared out the doors as Deimos ran away and The Knight started talking to police and news vans.

“Wacha thinkin’ there Science Boy?”

He blinked and looked at Remy, “My name is Logan Cuinn actually. I was just considering…” He trailed off looking out the window again

“How to get them to calm it down?” Remy extrapolated from the miserable look on Logan's face.

“Yes actually." He sighed and looked at Remy mournfully, "May I assume that you are going to take information about me to the police?” 

“Bitch please I’ve got no reason to ruin your life. You seem like a good guy, no reason to screw you and your friends over.”

“Who are you?” 

“Remy.”

Logan sighed, “Last name?”

“You don’t need to know.” Remy shrugged.

Logan shook his head a moment, and his tone had a hint of admiration as he said, “You don’t think before you speak at all do you?”

“Not usually no.” 

“That’s good,” Logan said. 

“Pfft, no one’s ever said that before.”

“It can be an admirable quality,” Logan said seriously.

“You’re a weird dude Logan.”

“I know it seems that way." Logan said without attempting to provide evidence to the contrary, "I appreciate the pointers. It is only on very infrequent occasions that I am able to consult other people on this topic. Sometimes the basics get lost in it all. Would you like to perhaps go somewhere for a meal in the near future and discuss this further with me?"

Remy frowned, oh god was he flirting?

"Um sorry, babe I don't really do the dating thing."

"Nor do I? What does that have to do with giving me your thoughts on my research?"

"Oh shit, you really meant you wanted us to talk about your research? I thought you were asking me out."

"Oh, my apologies I didn't mean for it to sound that way. For future reference, I'm asexual and aromantic. If it ever seems I am flirting you may feel assured that I am not." 

"Oh shit me too! Well, not the ace part, sex is cool, but I'm aromantic too. Anyway, yeah, in that case, we can grab coffee soon and talk if you want. Here." Remy pulled out his phone and pressed New Contact and handed it to Logan to type his information in. 

"Thank you, please contact me with information as to when your schedule is clear. Now I must pack my things and head home. I'm afraid I have rather neglected some of my duties."

"Night science boy." Remy sat down on the top of the desk and gave Logan a parting nod.

"Goodnight."

***

Logan was quite frankly reeling on this walk home that night. 

It was a feeling of just coming back to himself after months of floating through a lonely sleep-deprived detachment from everything.

It had all come rushing back in painfully detailed clarity as he saw Virgil narrowly dodge taking a sword through the stomach and immediately kick Roman's legs out from under him. 

He had caused this. 

They were both incredibly competitive he should have known better than to put them together.

And oh god there were so many things he should have known better than to do. 

Family dinners, ignoring texts, not sleeping, not eating. And he really _should_ have known to do full physical workups of his four friends _before_ he drew blood. 

He had alienated himself from everything. His conversation with Remy was the first he had had at all in four days. 

He had quite literally not spoken for _four days_.

Logan was nothing if not verbose and even that had left him recently apparently.

He needed to put a stop to his bad behavior and as much as it pained him to do so, that meant admitting to the others that he was wrong.

Normally that would be the most difficult thing he had ever done, but luckily for him, five months of loneliness and isolation was catching up with him making him feel a lot less picky about what he had to do to get some human interaction.

He knew Virgil would be at the apartment by the time he got there so he could apologize to his two best friends for inconveniencing and abandoning them so suddenly.

As he reached his apartment door he pulled out his keys and unlocked it. He stepped in the door and closed it behind him, sliding off his shoes just inside.

He heard Roman say, "I'm glad you are getting over Patton, pining helplessly isn't a good look on you, my friend."

Logan was surprised that Virgil had moved on although perhaps that was how quickly people moved on usually? It had been months, after all.

"Hey, Lo." Roman gave him a nod of greeting as Logan came into view.

"May I please talk to you both?" Logan asked, his voice still uncharacteristically hoarse (surely from suddenly using it after days of silence and not nervousness).

They looked at him, Roman seemed expectant and Virgil seemed almost… impatient. Logan felt a little sick (doubtlessly from insufficient nutrition).

"Go ahead." Virgil allowed. He seemed more confident, his whole frame had filled out, he had gotten a haircut. He looked adult. Which of course they were, but now Virgil truly looked like an adult. Logan was all too aware that he himself had become unnaturally pale, excluding perhaps the discoloration of the skin beneath his eyes, he was thin, and he had neglected to cut his hair for at least three months. It was like he had frozen in all types of self-care.

And Virgil… he was healthy and strong and confident. 

"I've… messed up." Logan swallowed feeling a lump in his throat, "I've messed up badly with the majority of my decisions since the end of November." After all, perhaps if he had made different decisions back all those months ago he wouldn't be in this situation now.

'No shit,' He heard both of them think at the same time.

How close had they become?

"I'm… so sorry."

'He can't just say that and not say why…' Virgil thought bitterly.

"What's been going on with you?" Roman asked.

"I got caught up in my work, I ignored you both, I was irresponsible and backed out of a situation where I was needed when I should have been asking for help maintaining it all rather than stopping without warning."

'I wonder if Virgil even knows what he's talking about,' Roman thought.

'Jeez, he's actually admitting he's wrong?' Virgil sounded surprised.

"I am not expecting you to necessarily forgive me, I just hope you're willing to take into account that I was stressed and also I can be a dick sometimes."

Roman snorted and tried to hide a chuckle.

Virgil was less easily won over, "Well let's look at this logically, shall we? I felt really hurt by what you've pulled and so has your whole family, by the way. So how do you plan to modify your behavior in the future?"

That was quite a logical question to ask, but it also gave him a twinge of guilt that very few people could elicit in him. Logan had hurt people with his actions. Including Patton and Dee for that matter. The more he thought the more the consequences of his actions settled in. Part of Logan wanted to defend himself, but he knew he wasn't being attacked, and he had no right to be angry in this situation.

"I'll explain what issue I'm having at the times I'm having them. Rather than attempting to come up with a convoluted solution which sounds good on paper but when put into effect isolates me from everything I care about." As he continued his voice sounded quieter and smaller to his own ears.

Virgil nodded slowly. He stood up, walked toward Logan and hugged him. Logan latched onto him tightly and he was glad Virgil couldn't see his face because it was bad enough that Roman was seeing how close he was to tears.

'Please talk to us. The problem wasn't even you deciding you had too much on your plate. The problem was the fact that as soon as you got all of this shit off your plate you took on even more work. You didn't get any more time to relax or take care of yourself, the only thing that changed was how much time you spent with people. It seemed like you cared more about work than any one of us including yourself.'

"I know." Logan's voice cracked a little. He cleared his throat and pulled back from the hug.

Roman cut in, 'We were okay you know? You don't have to feel so bad. I was worried for you, but I knew you would come back around. Granted it took a bit longer than I thought, but we've been taking care of things. I've got Deimos handled, I'm protecting Patton, we were actually studying for finals last night. Virgil and I are good. I know you're gonna guilt trip yourself if you think you just abandoned us and Virgil's done that enough, but really we were alright waiting for you to come back around. Sometimes you gotta have a full-on mental breakdown before you can get to the next thing you need to do.'

"Thank you," Logan said nodding toward Roman. Roman shot him a scathing look like 'oh my god Virgil is right there what are you thinking?!'

"Oh… I must have forgotten to mention. You both know I have powers." Logan said gesturing to the two of them.

He had really not been at his best, had he? Forgetting to mention even things like that was unlike him.

"AND WHEN WERE YOU PLANNING ON TELL US?"

Virgil raised a tentative hand, "I already knew." 

"BRO!"

"Sorry I thought you knew I knew that you knew… ya know?"

That made Logan's head hurt a little bit. He glanced at the clock. 

"2:34 AM" it read.

"Oh dear Newton I have not been adhering to suggested sleep guidelines for _months_," Logan said his voice betraying the horror he felt.

'No shit.' He heard in chorus again.

Logan shot them a glare, "I hardly need to be 'called out' by the two of you. You're both awake right now just the same as I am."

Virgil smirked, "Yeah, but we sleep in, Specs. You still insist on waking up at five every day."

"Hate to say it, but he has a point." Roman agreed.

Logan just sighed, "Would you both like to go get breakfast tomorrow at say eleven o'clock?"

"Sure, I'll meet you guys here. I should be getting home though I've had a long night." Virgil said rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry I gave you a hard time Lo, but like I needed to make sure you know what's been going on you know?"

"Thank you, V," Logan said nodding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's friendship without a being called out for the shit you've been doing that's bad for you?


	7. Kinder and Softer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God, y'all I did not think I was gonna get this chapter out on time. This week has been a trip. I had to take like three days of downtime from writing because I was feeling really crummy emotionally. And I only finished writing today.  
Oof yeah I just had a time of it.  
Hope you like this chapter, it's mainly romance focus and not real plot-heavy but it be that way sometimes

"Virgil may I ask you a few things regarding your… nighttime occupation?" Logan asked as he alphabetized Virgil's CDs. 

Virgil didn't ask him to do this. Virgil said "hey come over we can hang out for a bit" and Logan had immediately gasped in horror at the stacks of CDs that were strewn around Virgil's room and immediately began putting them all back in alphabetical order as Virgil had them when he first unpacked.

"What's up?" Virgil tilted his head to the side.

"How many times have you kidnapped Patton?"

Virgil grimaced, "Twice now."

Logan sighed, "I admittedly, may have made some bad decisions, but I don't think I'm crossing a line in saying that kidnapping your romantic interest is not the best idea."

"I don't _actually_ kidnap him. I asked him if he would mind pretending to be kidnapped. He's actually having fun with all this for some reason."

"I should have known. It's Patton, of course, he's having fun with this. I'm yet to see him be unenthusiastic."

"Have you apologized to him for not returning his calls yet? I've heard him mention it and it sounds like it really hurt his feelings."

"Yes, he took it very well. He is more mature than I am when it comes to emotions." Logan sounded miserable.

He had a really hard time apologizing to everyone. Virgil felt bad for him, he knew it wasn't easy for Logan to admit when he was wrong. And Virgil had been a bit harsh last week. He knew what Logan had been dealing with now.

Virgil knew Logan hadn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings, it was just a bad situation for all of them. It was such a small community and none of them could look for outside help without risking everything. It was frustrating that he and Logan were both carrying more than their fair share of the responsibility.

Why couldn't they depend on Fae to hold some of this shit up? Like at least Roman had the decency to be the poster child for superhumans not being evil. Then there was that elusive final superhuman and God knows what they were up to. 

"I know it seems as if it is unbalanced, " Logan responded. "Unfortunately, this is the only arrangement in which the greatest number of people retain their anonymity and therefore their safety. None of us can afford for me to give everyone all the information, it's bad enough, that I know it all because if I get caught everyone could be at risk. Unfortunately, there's no avoiding it when you read people's minds."

"When did our lives become so dangerous?" Virgil asked bitterly.

"The day that you walked into my kitchen and without a second thought opened a jar of crofters that both of my fathers tried to open for an hour."

"Oh, good point." 

A knock sounded on his bedroom door.

Virgil stood, walked to the door, and opened it. 

"Logan hey good I've been looking for you." Dee was standing in his doorway.

Logan set aside the stack of CDs in his hand, "What is wrong?" 

"The news report. You both may be interested." Dee invited himself in and closed the door behind him. He tossed a newspaper on the bed.

Virgil picked it up and read the headline aloud, "'A Secret Romance?' What is this?"

He continued, "The dazzling hidden affair between local hero The Knight and…"

Virgil trailed off. Well shit.

Logan stood up and looked over Virgil's shoulder, "Patton? No, he's not dating the Knight. This is drivel."

"Oh really?" Dee said with a smile. He snatched the paper out of Virgil's hand.

"'The two were seen strolling away from the last fight, exchanging secretive glances and murmuring things about having feelings that "are never simple". Is it perhaps a sign that there is more to this situation with Mr. Gaudy's repeated kidnapping? Does Deimos know something that we don't?'" Dee looked up, "No, actually you're right Logan. This is drivel and this photo is faked except for the fact that Patton I know what photoshopped newsprint looks like and that-" He pointed to the photo of Patton looking down at the ground with a thoughtful look on his face, "That is not faked."

"They're allowed to talk!" Logan exclaimed with no small amount of ace frustration. "I hope neither of you is going to be jumping to conclusions with this."

"No no you're right they're probably just talking but- whatever nevermind," Dee said impatiently. Virgil wasn't so certain.

Another knock at the door, fuck. Who was it now?

Dee opened it this time.

It was Roman.

"Oh God, it's you!" Roman said wrinkling his nose at Dee, "Have you seen Lo- Oh Logan there you are! Have you read the papers?"

Dee sneered, "No we were just standing in a circle starting the cult of low-quality paper worshippers."

"Oh fuck off! Logan, could I have a moment alone to talk with you?"

Virgil cut in, feeling the bitterness poison his words, "Why? We're all talking about the same thing. Patton's new boyfriend." 

He felt so stupid. Of course, Roman and Patton were together. The hero and the damsel, tale as old as time right? That was fine, it's just Virgil had thought… well, nevermind it didn't matter much now did it?

"Patton's new what now?" Patton appeared in the doorway.

They all fell silent and stared at him with wide eyes. 

All except Logan, "Oh, for Newton's sake, " He grabbed the paper from Dee's hand and passed it to Patton.

Patton's eyes scanned the paper for what felt like an eternity. 

"Well the do seem to think I have quite a _Knight_life don't they?" Patton laughed and passed the paper back, leaving the room.

They were all painfully aware that Patton had neither confirmed nor denied it and now the only one in the room who knew the truth was Roman and they couldn't very well ask him.

Virgil glanced around. Dee seemed to be feeling similarly to himself. Did Dee like Patton too? That would explain why he reacted badly to the idea of Patton going out with him…

"I have to go." Logan shook his head clearly overwhelmed, "I will see you all later, I should go get some filing done for the lab."

And Logan walked out the door.

Dee awkwardly followed him out.

Roman stayed for a while and they talked but frankly, as childish as it was, Virgil wasn't in much of a mood to talk to him. Eventually, Roman left saying he had to go get dressed for a night of heavy drinking, leaving Virgil to get ready.

He _knew_ jealousy wasn't a good look on him and it was completely unfounded, he and Patton weren't together. Hell, they weren't even friends. He needed to pull his shit together or he would risk losing Roman's friendship.

So he exhaled slowly, got dressed, and headed out into the evening air.

He soon found his way to his own fire escape and knocked on the window, after all, he and Patton had agreed to meet again tonight.

Patton came out of his bedroom grinning. Virgil felt the air leave his lungs.

Patton's eyes were like _sunlight_.

Virgil shook his head, forcing himself to think of something else. Unfortunately, he then noticed what Patton was wearing. That damned skirt again.

Virgil decided Patton's eyes weren't such a bad thing to fixate on.

Patton opened the window and boosted himself up onto the ledge, "By Dee, see you tomorrow!" He called into the apartment. He then swung his legs over onto the fire escape and pulled the window shut behind him.

"Hi, Deimos!" Patton smiled. 

Virgil couldn't help the smile that formed on his face, "Hey Pat. Ready to go?"

"Yessiree, where we heading tonight?"

"Where do you wanna go?" Virgil asked the question falling out of his mouth without meaning for it to. He already had a plan tonight. Why was he letting Patton pick a place? 

The excitement on Patton's face made it worth it.

"Hmm well… can you take me to a roof?" Patton asked hopefully.

Oof that was a tall order to fill, but Virgil would do it.

"Do you have a specific one in mind?" 

"Not really, I just really wanna go to a roof. We could have a dramatic roof conversation!"

Virgil smirked, "Alright I think I know one that'll work." This was only half true. He actually had a mental list of five prepared just in case he wasn't going to be able to scale the side of his first choice.

"Yay!" Patton held out his arms, clearly asking to be picked up. Virgil rolled his eyes and turned around, letting Patton climb on his back.

Virgil was all too aware, as he held onto Patton's legs, that tonight there was not a layer of denim separating him and Patton. He ignored this. Roman was his friend and he was with Patton now. That mattered more than some crush.

And if what he was feeling for Patton had to be pushed aside… well, it wasn't as if he ever had a chance with him anyway.

They stopped at the base of a building that was a nice seven stories tall. There were different handholds that Virgil could use and he could probably make it up there.

"This one?" Patton asked.

"Is it tall enough?" Virgil asked.

"I was expecting a one-story building so this is amazing! I'm very excited, I've spent a long time _building_ up to this."

Virgil hid a laugh, and pretended to groan at the shitty joke, "Ugh just hold on tight okay? I'm gonna need my arms for this so you'll have to hold on by yourself. Can you do that for me?"

He felt Patton nod. The arms around his neck locked together and Patton's legs wrapped around him, crossing together in front of him. Virgil firmly ignored how every line of their bodies was now pressed together. 

"Alright, here we go." He grabbed a ledge and swung upward, not wasting any time. Patton let out a small shriek.

"Agh! Right in my ear, Pat?" He complained.

"Sorry."

Virgil continued the rest of the way up, using pipes and window sills to drag them upward, finally pulling himself over the edge of the roof.

Patton let go of him and looked over the edge of the roof. He scrambled backward with a grin on his face, "This is so cool!"

Virgil just laughed, hauling himself to his feet to go stand next to Patton.

Patton joked, "I am absolutely through the roof about this." 

"You're the worst," Virgil said laughing.

"It's so beautiful, you can see the whole city!" Patton breathed.

"If you turn around and look out that way you can see the river." Virgil gestured with his head in the direction of the bridge.

Patton spun to look in that direction, "Wow!" 

Patton spent the next few minutes freaking out about every little detail of the city.

"I can see the university!"  
"Hey, there's my apartment!"  
"The Walmart I work at still looks like trash from this high up!" (Virgil may have laughed at this one)

Then Patton suddenly turned to look at him, "Thank you for bringing me up here, Deimos." Patton said it softly and looked Virgil directly in the eye. Patton's eyes were still beautiful. 

Virgil glanced at his shoes, "Yeah, of course, it's the least I could do, " He said casually.

Patton looked away too.

"Speaking of bringing you here, " Virgil continued, "are you gonna want me to take you home?"

"Umm, " Patton look a little embarrassed, "I would appreciate it if it's not too much trouble." He clearly had already been planning on Virgil taking him home anyway.

"Oh no, it's no problem, I just thought that maybe you would want The Knight to take you home…" Virgil trail off awkwardly.

"Well I mean he probably would if I asked, he's a nice guy, but… well, it's just gonna be awkward after what the newspapers were saying."

Virgil felt a fragile amount of hope build in his chest, "So it's not…?"

"True?" Patton shook his head. "They were just jumping to conclusions."

Virgil refused to smile, he was not happy about this. It was merely an interesting fact.

"Not dating the knight then? Good." Virgil nodded.

"Why is it good?" Patton asked with a smile. 

"Oh look the stars are pretty up here," Virgil said abruptly changing the subject. Patton laughed at him but Virgil found he didn't really mind it.

"You know what else is pretty?" Patton asked.

Virgil silenced the persistent part of himself that hoped Patton would say something that meant he liked Virgil back. Patton hadn't shown any signs that he felt that way about him. He just needed to pull it together. 

"Lemme guess the city? You've only been fawning over it since we got here, " Virgil teased lightly.

"Hmm, " Patton tugged his mouth to the side, "Yeah I guess the city is too."

'Too'?  
'Too'??  
What was the other thing???

Just as he was about to ask Patton spoke again.

"So um… what's the plan tonight?" Patton asked.

Bit his lip, trying to think, "I don't know I guess we've got options since we're on a roof. We could..." He trailed off not sure how he was gonna finish that thought.

Patton got a mischievous look, "How about you give a whole monologue about how you won’t be foiled this time. And you can just drop me off the building so that the Knight has to catch me. Then you’ll seem committed to doing evil and stuff." 

As Patton explained Virgil's smile slid away.

"Pat are you aware of how fucking dangerous that would be? What if he didn't catch you?"

Patton's smile melted, "Calm down, Dei. I was just kidding. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you worry. It’s sweet that you’re so concerned.”

He had been spending too much time with Roman who was serious about every one of his stupid ideas. 

Had Patton just called him "Dei"?

Virgil’s cheeks felt warm, he had to recover from this before Patton realized how uncool he was, "Uh sorry, I've gotten used to people saying outrageous things like that and meaning it. I hang out with some impulsive people. And besides, I don't know what you're talking about I am evil incarnate obviously. Completely uncaring. I don’t know fear."

"Right, of course, how silly of me,” Patton's lips quirked into a small smile, “It's really too bad though, it could’ve been fun falling for you."

Virgil's brain stopped.  
What?  
Huh?  
Fall for?  
Fall-?

Did Patton just say what Virgil just heard???

Patton had a completely calm expression, just the usual neutral smile. Maybe Virgil had misheard. That was- he just misheard… right?

Virgil shook his head, trying to form words, “Did- did you make that whole idea just so that you’d have a chance to make that joke?”

Patton nodded, “Absolutely.”

Virgil laughed, shaking his head.

"So what are we gonna do instead?" Patton asked.

Virgil thought a moment, "We'll pretend to do that. I'll hold you close to the edge and act like I'm gonna make you fall. The Knight will come to scoop you up before that happens."

"Darn, I guess that’s probably a better idea anyway," Patton grinned.

"Well, I don’t know about that ‘I’m gonna jump off a seven-story building’ is a tough act to follow,” Virgil smirked. 

Virgil scanned their surroundings, he spotted Roman flying around clearly looking for him, but he hadn't seen them yet.

"We've got company," Virgil sighed nodding in Roman's direction and pushing himself up to standing.

Patton scrambled to his feet. The Knight must have caught their movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned, saw them, and started flying in their direction.

They stood there awkwardly as the Knight approached.

"Maybe you should put a hand on my arm or something to make it seem like you have me captured," Patton suggested.

"Oh uh right yeah, " Virgil put a hand on Patton's upper arm, barely touching him. He somehow felt like if he touched Patton more than necessary Patton would figure out how much of a mess Virgil was for him.

Then Roman was there, and their little bubble of peace came to a stop.

***

Okay so maybe tonight Patton wasn’t really thinking before he joked tonight. And maybe tonight he had been trying really hard to get Deimos' attention. And maybe Deimos hadn’t noticed? 

He had been pretty sure that Deimos and he had been on the same page though. After all, Deimos had been asking about whether Patton was dating the Knight… and like Patton had been feeling a lot of embarrassment from Deimos. Patton just thought maybe he liked him a little bit? Which would be nice because Patton was starting to think he liked Deimos. Well, he did but that was a scary thing to admit. 

But maybe he was completely wrong about all of it. Maybe Deimos liked the Knight?

That would explain why he seemed so worried about whether Patton and the Knight were dating. Goodness, this was all so confusing.

Patton hoped Deimos didn't like the Knight. That could only end in tears. After all, Dee would be mad if he thought someone else had their eyes on…

Wait! Oh no! That's why Dee had been acting moody! He thought _Patton_ was dating the Knight!

Patton had to get home and fix this.

He hoped the two of them would be done soon…

He was currently sitting in the middle of the roof while the two of them wrestled around and punched and sliced each other. If the two of them kept doing this every day they would have to start calling it Knight Club.

(Ya know? Like Fight Club? Patton actually hadn't seen that movie yet but he always heard people quoting it.)

He sighed. 

This was sort of... boring, but he couldn't leave until the Knight rescued him properly.

The first couple of minutes of the fight were cool to watch, but it had been like almost fifteen minutes now according to his phone. He tucked his phone back in the waistband of his skirt and went back to pouting.

He didn't have long to wait.

"We gotta go!" The Knight exclaimed running by, grabbing Patton's hand.

“Whoa!” Patton was pulled to his feet. He stumbled across the roof. The Knight's hand gripping his. They ran toward the edge. Deimos was shouting something.

Then they were falling. Patton shrieked and flailed to grasp anything and in this case, it was the Knight's face. They were tumbling through the air together. Patton was screaming. Then they weren't falling anymore. The knight held onto him awkwardly as they headed toward the ground slowly. Oh. Right. Rocket boots. 

The Knight held Patton like a sack of potatoes (or Pat-atoes), all awkward like at any moment Patton might shift the wrong direction and fall. Patton had to say that this was easily the worst carrying job he had experienced recently. Even Dee seemed more comfortable flying with Patton than Knight seemed.

"I'm sorry that was terribly bad." The Knight said panting as he reached the ground. "I forgot that I haven't done a push-up since freshman gym class and am not strong enough to carry a whole human without dropping him.

Oh! That explained it.

"Don't worry I probably wouldn't be able to carry you either." Patton laughed. "Hey I've got class in the morning would you mind handling the reporters tonight?"

"Oh, sure I do every night anyway. Will you be okay getting home?"

"Oh yeah, I'll be alright!"

"Here take this, just in case, " He handed Patton his sword, "Don't worry about returning it. It automatically disappears when I go to sleep and I'll resummon it tomorrow."

"Oh um.. Thank you?" Patton said, not sure what to do with the huge blade in his hand.

"Of course!"

Patton walked down the block and around the corner. Deimos was already there. 

He raised an eyebrow at the sword, "Off to slay a Dragon?"

Patton frowned, "The Knight sent it with me to protect myself."

"Oh, the press will go wild over that. A true sign of romance, the blade," Deimos said seriously 

Patton laughed and Deimos broke out in a smile.

"Well if you don't mind me saying so, I don't think we're going to need it." He gently took the sword from Patton and tossed it in a nearby dumpster. He turned his back to Patton, clearly ready to pick him up. Patton climbed on. 

They were back at Patton's house in no time. Patton glanced in the window. Dee was sitting on the couch glaring at the wall. At least he wasn't already in bed.

"See you tomorrow?" Patton asked hopefully.

"Uh Pat, hate to break it to you, but you work tomorrow night," Deimos said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh right, " Patton laughed, feeling embarrassed. 

"I'll see you Monday though?" Deimos asked sounding nervous.

Patton grinned, "Yeah alright."

"What time should I come to get you?"

"How about…" Patton considered a moment, "At nine?"

Deimos smiled, "We would have a lot of time to kill…"

"Is that bad?" 

"Um no, " Deimos huffed out a laugh, "not at all." 

"Okay! Then… see you." And Patton climbed through the window, shut it behind him, and sighed when he saw Deimos leave.

"Evening, " Dee said politely.

"Hi Dee, " Patton turned and gave him a tentative smile.

Dee raised an eyebrow.

"Dee I'm not dating him," Patton said, making his way over to the couch to sit next to Dee.

"I don't care who you date."

"Maybe but you care who he dates and I want you to know that if he's with anyone it isn't me."

"Oh yes, Patton because I genuinely believe that you would go behind my back and do something like that," Dee rolled his eyes but didn't seem to be in a more positive mood.

"Then what is it? I can feel the jealousy coming off you from over here."

"I'm not jealous. He's my nemesis. Why would I care that you guys have time to go on long strolls having casual conversations at night?"

Oh dear, he was jealous that Patton got to spend time with Knight. That wasn't good. Patton felt terrible because Dee didn't easily become attached to people and he had been trying so hard to not let how much trouble he was having show.

"We were talking about you," Patton confessed.

Dee's armor seemed to crack a little, "You were?"

Patton nodded, "I can't tell you what about, because he asked me to not mention it to you but… he misses you too, I can tell."

"Course because everything was far too simple when I thought he hated me…" Dee's shoulders slumped and he looked up, "Thanks, Patton." 

He grabbed Patton's hand and squeezed it. Patton could feel how sad Dee was, he could feel the scales on Dee's hand, he could feel how hard Dee was trying to pretend he didn't care. Patton squeezed his hand back.

***

Come Monday night Deimos picked Patton up early, as promised. The two of them went and sat next to the river because even though neither would admit it yet they didn’t want the Knight interrupting their time. They talked for a long time and then fell into silence watching the water roll by.

Patton had learned a lot about Deimos. He had just turned nineteen recently. He worked most days (but couldn't say where). He had grown up in this city and had only left the state a handful of times. Mostly Patton learned that Deimos was a lot kinder and softer than he wanted people to know. Especially when you complimented him.

“Hey I keep meaning to say this, but I like your crown, with the leaves and stuff, it's very cool. Leaf it to you to be seen wearing the coolest crown.”

Deimos groaned half-heartedly, and then replied, “I actually made it myself so thanks… or whatever.” 

Deimos didn’t take compliments well but he always looked flustered if you so much as commented on his shoes in a positive way. 

“Wow! How’d you learn to make stuff like that? The leaves are so delicate!”

“I uh made it in a jewelry class. The teacher thought I was putting too much work into a single piece but it was before I started this whole villain thing so I had a lot more time on my hands.” That made sense.

“A jewelry class? At the university?” Patton asked curiously.

“Yeah.” Deimos ran a finger through the dirt in front of him.

Patton tilted his head, “You’re a student too?”

“Yeah, I mean I probably shouldn’t answer that but yeah.” Deimos shrugged.

Patton paused, “Deimos, do we… know each other?”

Deimos chewed on his lip, not looking at Patton. He nodded a little.

“Oh…” Patton didn’t know what to think. He hadn’t really ever considered that he and Deimos might know each other. “Are we friends?”

Deimos shook his head, nervously meeting Patton’s eyes. Patton searched his face for signs of something familiar. The was half a memory tugging at the back of his mind but Patton couldn’t place him. The makeup, the mask, the darkness, it made it hard to tell.

"You look nervous," Patton noted worriedly, "Do we not like each other? I mean I don't really dislike anyone that I can think of but…"

"No, it's not that it just… we don't really talk much. The odd conversation here or there but… I don't know. It's complicated."

"Oh…" Patton nodded thinking for a moment, "that's too bad, I really like talking to you." 

'I really like _you_, ' He added mentally.

Deimos huffed out an ironic laugh, "Yeah, me too, Pat." 

Patton's heart did a little flip. Patton couldn't hide the smile that stole over his face.

Deimos stood up brushing the dirt off his pants, "We uh- we should get going. The Knight's going to be looking for us." He offered a hand to help Patton up.

Patton nodded, and took his hand, using it for balance as he stood, "Think we could walk this time?"

Deimos' mouth twitched into a smile, "Yeah, sounds good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another thing that almost stopped me from updating on time was Binging this amazing slow burn fic and if any of y'all like good omens and angst check out this fic:  
https://archiveofourown.org/works/19513990/chapters/46416007
> 
> It's so so good not even kidding.


	8. Movement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so moxiety has a theme to the music I'll be using for all their major moments  
That theme is hozier  
Their theme in this chapter is Movement by Hozier (which is also their theme in this whole story tbh)
> 
> I hope you like

Logan's phone went off with a bing as he sat filing papers late at night in the office of the research center. He pulled it out and unlocked it, checking who it was. 

A text from an unknown number. Who?

"Baaaaaabe I'm bored come out here, we can talk now."

Logan arched an eyebrow. Remy. At least he assumed so. It had been a little over a week since he and Remy first spoke, but Logan wasn't called "babe" all that frequently.

Logan left the office closing the door behind him and walked out to the front lobby. Remy was sitting on the desk, cross-legged with a laptop in his lap.

"Hey! So yeah I know I didn't text you for like ever, but I have some ideas that I typed up of what you should fix in your research,” Remy flipped around the laptop revealing a word document full of clearly organized notes. It was four pages long. Single spaced, times new roman. Logan could cry.

“May I?” Logan asked, hands hovering above the computer.

“Yeah take it, I gotta do my rounds real quick, but I’ll be back in a few,” Remy handed him the computer and jumped up from the counter. He walked away down the hall.

Logan started devouring Remy’s notes on his work. Clearly, Remy had read more of it than Logan originally thought because these were quite detailed and helpful. He hadn't been able to get anyone to give him this much feedback for months.

Remy caught several issues that Logan had overlooked. Luckily it wasn’t too late to fix the majority of them. A lot of it was questions and tests that Logan hadn’t asked or run because his faculties had been somewhat impaired in his perpetually exhausted state. He had gotten more sleep lately and Remy was also around to help him a bit so he was sure he would start making some real progress.

Remy walked back into the room holding two cups, he held one out to Logan, “Drink some coffee bitch we got a long night ahead of us.”

Logan smiled a little and took the cup. 

***

After the night at the river, Deimos fought the Knight. Patton interviewed with reporters and tried to dodge questions about his and Knight's "relationship". Then Deimos took him home.

They stood on the fire escape together. Patton didn't know what to say.

"Are you alright? I saw you took a lot of hits tonight…” Patton said. Way more than usual.

“Oh uh yeah I’m okay, I just kept getting distracted while we fought tonight,” Deimos said waving his hand dismissively.

“What was distracting you?” Patton asked curiously.

Deimos looked down at his shoes, “Um well, we weren’t exactly in a good neighborhood so I got a little um concerned for you and-”

“I distracted you?” Patton gasped worriedly.

“No! Well, yeah but it was my own fault really. Didn’t have my head in the game you know?”

“Deimos I don't want you to get even more hurt just because I'm around!"

“I’m fine Pat, I’ll go get all patched up as soon as I leave, I promise.” 

That didn't ease Patton's concerns. Then he had an idea which would help.

“Then hurry up and get going!” Patton said putting his hands on his hips.

“That eager to get rid of me huh?”

“No, I just want you healed as soon as possible so we can do this again soon.”

Deimos laughed,v“We can do this again soon either way.” 

“Nope, there won’t be any more kidnappings until you are completely healed. It isn’t good for you to always be hurt and you’ve been doing this for months,” Patton said firmly. 

Deimos laughed seeming to think he was joking, “Pat come on I fight every night. How am I gonna heal completely?”

“Good question. If you wanna see me again you’ll figure it out. Won’t you?” Patton winked. Then he climbed through the window and shut it behind him. Barely breathing. Did he just wink?

Deimos looked at him through the window looking baffled. Patton stared right back. Deimos shook his head, turned away, and left.

Patton ran to Dee's door and knocked on it probably too many times in a row but he needed his friend.

Dee flew out of the room, no glamour, no pants, just a long t-shirt, looking around frantically. He stopped when he only saw Patton.

He exhaled slowly, leaning against the door frame putting on a glamour so his legs at least look covered. He didn't bother with the scales.

"Are you okay?" Patton asked, why had Dee looked so panicked.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, " Dee said sarcastically, "Let me just wait for my heart to crawl down out of my throat. Patton, it is one AM. I thought 'oh my God if he's knocking now obviously there's a big problem'."

"Why would I knock if there was an emergency? I would just walk on if it was really that important."

"I don't know! Fuck you it's one am and I'm not thinking logically."

"I'm sorry but I needed to talk to you!" Patton said pleadingly.

Dee sighed, "Well I'm awake. Might as well, just let me put on real pants." He said he went to the other side of his room tugging on actual pants, the glamour rippling away.

"Alright come on in, what's the problem?" 

"I need advice on romance."

Dee rolled his eyes, "Ah yes, one of the many topics that I'm an expert on." 

"Dee please?"

"Fine what is it?"

"Okay, so there's this guy-"

"Deimos."

"I didn't say that did I?" Patton said.

"Then who?" Dee asked looking unconvinced and unimpressed.

"... Deimos, " Patton answered, looking off to the side, embarrassed.

"Mmmhmm okay so you're flirting with him and what?"

"I can’t tell if he likes me too!”

“oh boy”

“And I want to ask, but I want him to ask…”

Dee sighed and flopped backward onto the bed, “The way I see it you don’t have much choice here because you’ve been anything but subtle. If he hasn’t picked up on you straight up saying you’re 'falling for him' I don’t know that he’ll notice anything short of you saying ‘Deimos I want to kiss you’ and even then he’ll probably wonder if it's platonic.”

“What would you do?”

“Me?”

Patton nodded.

“I’d pine helplessly for the foreseeable future.”

“Oh, so you’d do just what you’re doing now?”

“I’m not pining after anyone.” Dee lied badly.

Patton just raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

Dee ignored it and moved on, “Look you can’t just take into account you like him. I wasn’t judging you for flirting because flirting doesn’t have to lead to anything and you seem like the type who would do it for fun but if you want to pursue something more you need to think about how serious that is.” Dee scratched at his scales.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

Dee sighed, "Have you ever heard the story of Eros and Psyche?"

"What?" This definitely felt like a subject change but Patton also knew that when Dee couldn't communicate a point he liked referencing philosophers and fairy tales. 

"Psyche and Eros, it's a Greek myth. One that I'm sure your loverboy knows quite well considering his name come from the God of fear in Greek mythology."

Patton never minded, the fairy tales always helped him understand what Dee was saying easier because Dee finally stopped being sarcastic or saying the opposite of what he meant.

"What happened in the story?"

Dee frowned, "Settle in, it's not an entirely nice tale. I can promise a happy ending, though."

Patton crossed his legs and got comfortable.

***

"Psyche, " Dee began, settling into his storytelling voice, "was a kind and beautiful girl. A princess. She was revered in all the land to be as stunning as Aphrodite herself. Psyche tried to deny the accusations pointing out how disrespectful that was to Aphrodite. But that just made people like her more for her kindness and they worshipped her more than they worshipped Aphrodite. This, for obvious reasons, displeased the goddess. So she called another god, her son, to her to demand he help her fix the situation."

Patton's attention was on him, rapt. This was the part Dee liked when you tell a good story everyone around you gets quiet and just listens.

Dee continued, "His name was Eros and he was the God of romance. He was supposed to go out into the world and bring Psyche down by making her fall in love with a terrible monster. I'm the lean time Psyche's parents, the king and queen were consulting an oracle trying to figure out if any man would be bold enough to marry their daughter. They got a prophecy that said quite vaguely, 'a powerful creature will take your daughter for his wife' and… they kicked her out."

Dee paused here letting Patton draw the connection between Psyche and himself. At least he hoped Patton would relate with Psyche otherwise the whole message he was trying to communicate would fall flat.

He shrugged after the dramatic pause, "What good was a daughter if it wouldn't lead to an heir? Now Eros saw it all happen. He saw Psyche denying that she was like Aphrodite. He saw how lonely she was. He saw her parents kicked her out. And he fell immediately in love with her. So he had a friendly wind spirit guide her to his palace. It lay in a valley far away from any prying eyes. After all, if anyone knew where Psyche was Aphrodite would find out that Eros hadn't done his job."

Patton pulled his knees to his chest and rested his chin there.

"Psyche was scared at first because she had just arrived at the palace and the servants told her that when the sunset and all the candles were blown out a man would arrive who was in love with her. This would be frightening in and of itself but she also had the prophecy looming over her. So she assumed that this was going to be the 'powerful creature' of the prophecy and she also assumed, like her parents that this creature would be a monster."

Patton had almost certainly started to relate with Psyche because he was chewing on his lip as he listened now.

"Eros arrived not long after dark, he insisted that they did not light lamps because he didn't want her to know who he was and he didn't tell her his name. He was charming, kind, and promised to protect her above all else, all she had to do was trust him. And surprisingly she did."

Dee chose not to point out how that was an objectively stupid decision. Now was not the time to insult Patton.

Dee continued, "Every night after dark Eros arrived and they talked for hours. The two grew closer and it wasn't long until Psyche had fallen in love with Eros too. And in those days that was enough to consider them married, but she still had concerns. What if he _was_ a monster as they had said? Why didn't he trust her enough to tell her who he was? So she waited until he fell asleep one night and lit a lamp to see." 

"He wasn't a monster. Just a man." Dee said quietly, "Or a God rather. She recognized him as the God Eros. In her surprise, she dripped hot oil from the lamp on him and it burned him, scaring him awake."

"Realizing that she had betrayed the agreement they had, he ran away, back home to Aphrodite and she didn't see him for months as he nursed the wound from the burn. The truth was he was a God, the burn itself did nothing to him. He was hurt and angry and embarrassed."

"Psyche in the meantime had no idea where Eros was. She finally managed to make her way to the palace of Aphrodite. She pleaded with the goddess to let her see Eros but the goddess demanded she prove her love for him by doing impossible tasks. After all true love can conquer all. So if Psyche loved him she could do it."

"In the end Psyche did. Her and Eros got back together. She was turned into a goddess and they lived happily ever after."

Dee was tired now but he kept speaking.

"The moral of this story to me always seemed to be: Love gets strangled under the weight of secrets. They only got their happily ever after once Psyche and Eros were both honest about their secrets and worries. If they had been from the beginning I highly doubt Psyche would have been telling everyone who he was but he never gave her the chance."

Patton frowned a little.

"Pat… I get it. I really do. More than just about anyone else. Sometimes we care for someone and… telling them so is too dangerous because of our social standing, " Dee said thinking of the knight, "But I understand Deimos even more. And if I was in costume and the Knight came to me, whipped off his helmet and asked me to run away with him all I had to do was let my glamour fall? I wouldn't be able to say yes, for his sake, it's better if he doesn't know who I am."

This was the first time he admitted to caring about the Knight. Dee was staring at the floor not meeting Patton's eyes.

"Not that he would ever come to me asking that, " See said shaking his head, "It's just… even if Deimos trusts you to not tell anyone on purpose you would be in danger by even knowing who he is. I don't think he would risk that."

"Maybe he _would_ though, " Patton said trying to convince himself more than Dee.

"Look I'm saying that you can ask him but if he turns you down… try not to be too hurt. He has quite a few reasons to say no."

"Why do I feel like your trying to discourage me?" Patton asked.

"I'm not. I just know your very optimistic and getting hurt is even more painful when you don't expect it, " Dee would know, "So you go ahead and hope for the best, I'm just trying to help you prepare for the worst." Dee gave him a soft smile.

"Dee I really like him…"

"Then do it." Dee nodded.

Patton nodded too, standing up and walking toward the door. 

He stopped just inside the room, before leaving, "Dee… what did Psyche become the goddess of?"

Dee looked at him, "...The human spirit. Emotions, ethics, the things that make us who we are."

***

Roman was at work, as one should be if one wants to hold a job. It was in the middle of the morning rush and he was taking coffee orders as fast as he could, going through customers quickly, charming them into buying a muffin or scone they didn't originally want. One guy asked for his number which Roman had to turn down because… well, actually he didn't know why. He just felt that he definitely shouldn't go on any dates right now.

Finally, as the rush died down one of their regulars strolled through the door.

"Dr. Picani!" Roman greeted him as the man walked toward the counter.

"Hiya, and you know Roman I haven't been your teacher nearly six months now, you really can just call me Emile."

"Alright _Emile_ what can I get for you today?"

"Do you guys still have those cranberry orange muffins?"

"Oh, I'm sorry we just sold th-"

"Stop wait wait wait," Mr. Wynne, his manager, Logan's stepdad, came rushing out holding a new pan of muffins. "Just finished making these." He started unloading them into the muffin case.

Roman laughed and put one into a bag for Emile and Mr. Wynne went back to the kitchen to do heaven knows what. 

He took Dr. P- _Emile's_ money and put it into the register, giving him back his change, "Have a nice day."

"Actually Roman, might I have a word with you?"

Oh, that was nice and ominous!

"Um sure, " He turned and called into the kitchen, "Mr. Wynne, can I have my break now?"

"I don't see why not, Virgil will be here in a minute or two, he can take over the register."

"Thanks!"

Roman untied his apron, hung it on a hook and followed Emile to a table in the corner.

"What's up?" Roman asked, feeling a little nervous. He and Emile had always been friendly, but it was kinda weird sitting alone with your ex-teacher in a coffee shop.

"You'll have to forgive me if this is too blunt or not a good time to bring it up. I know you're at work, but I've been wrestling with when to bring it up and there really isn't a better way to do it, " Emile tugged his lips to the side and looked at Roman with a tangible amount of concern.

"Bring what up?" Roman said slowly.

"Your… mental health."

Oh boy, this wasn't going to be good.

"You see I remember back last fall, you had a very rough time. You spent much of the semester playing catch-up due to your time in the hospital. Getting shot, in and of itself is extremely traumatic. Then at the end of the semester, your twin brother is revealed to be superhuman, is sent to jail, and escapes all over the course of three days? That's a lot to take in, even for the strongest of people."

Well sure when you compiled all of it like that it sounded really bad.

"And now… well, I've been noticing you have a lot of small injuries. Almost constantly. Cuts, bruises, you've been walking through campus with a limp half the time, " He hesitated with that worried look still on his face, "...I don't think I'm out of line in being worried about you."

Worried about him? Well heck! What was Roman supposed to say? His usual excuse of going out drinking nightly wouldn't make Emile less worried because then it would seem like he had a drinking problem on top of all of it.

"Oh well don't worry about me! Thank you, I _have_ had a rough few months, but I've been dealing with it by going to a boxing gym with my best friend every night. You know Virgil right?" Roman said pointing toward Virgil who was at the counter now. The words best friend stumbled out of his mouth with Roman meaning to say them, but it was true. Virgil and Logan were his best friends. He had best friends again.

"Oh yes, I know Virgil! He's my favorite student, don't tell anyone I said that. You have no idea how much of a relief it is to hear that, though! I was going to ask Virgil why he was all covered in bruises too! Now I am thankfully free of a second awkward conversation. I'm glad you're both alright. If you ever need anyone though, just a friend to talk to, call me okay? Here's my card, it has my cell number on it," Emile smiled and slid the small cardstock rectangle toward Roman across the table.

"Thanks, Emile, that means a lot to me. I appreciate your concern." Roman struggled to keep his voice even despite the emotions that were welling up in his chest (and maybe his eyes okay he was human). 

"Of course, " Emile said as if it was no big deal and he left.

Roman needed to go tell Virgil that he was using him as an excuse.

***

It had been a week since Patton's ultimatum and Virgil was dying. He didn't want to be leaving it so long, but his bruises we're taking forever to heal and he could only dodge so many hits! 

Plus Roman was starting to question why he wasn't fighting back and was only dodging.

This is why he was absolutely thrilled when Roman refused to physically fight one night.

"Can't do it, " He said shaking his head, "People are asking why I'm always hurt. Need to take care of my body for a bit. How about we pick up fighting again in a week?"

"Oh!" Virgil said, genuinely shocked, "Fine yeah, do you wanna like verbally spar every night or just take a break?"

"Verbally spar, your ego could still us a bruising!" Roman declared.

"My ego needs bruising? Are you sure you should even be out and about with how big your head is? I would go to the hospital if I was experiencing that much swelling."

"My heads only big because it's full of hot air!"

"Admitting that you're an airhead? Gotta say didn't think you were that self-aware."

"No, the hot air is going to carry me to great heights like a balloon!"

"Should you really go any higher? Your head's already in the clouds."

"The only cloud near me is the storm cloud of you raining on my parade!"

Virgil didn't have a witty come back. Fuck. 

"Yeah well… you're never going to get a parade because only real heroes get parades and you can't stop me from kidnapping Patton!" He snapped back.

"Oh yeah? Then where's Patton now?" Roman taunted.

"Uh…"

"Exactly. You don't have him and you haven't for a week now so I win!"

"Now now let's not be hasty here. I'm sure that any day now I'll get him again."

***

Virgil was able to make good on that promise three days later. He was standing on the fire escape, hair still wet from the shower and sticking to the back of his neck. He knocked on the window and hoped to God that Patton wasn't busy.

A sound of someone clearing their throat next to him made Virgil whip around.

It was Fae.

"You're back, " Fae said without inflection.

"Yeah…" Virgil said backing up toward the other side of the fire escape. Was it bad that Virgil was genuinely kinda scared?

"Patton went into his bedroom a moment ago, I'm sure he'll be out soon. But Deimos?"

"Yeah?" Virgil repeated, looking at the man in front of him who obviously knew more about Virgil than Virgil knew about him. How did he know when Virgil would show up?

"You may be named after the God of Fear, but if you hurt him you will become quite closely acquainted with it before I'm through with you. Do what you must, but remember that one word from him, " Fae gestured toward Patton who was emerging from the bedroom, "And you will find yourself in a _very_ sticky situation. Have a nice night."

Virgil turned as the window opened. When he glanced back Fae was gone. 

What. The. Fuck?

"Hi!" Patton said brightly.

"Umm yeah hey, " Virgil shook his head giving Patton his full attention, "Hi, how are you?"

"I'm great, a friend of mine just turned up who I'd very much like to spend time with," Patton said scrunching up his nose adorably, Virgil's heart did a summersault, "But the question is, how are you? All healed?" 

Was that hope in Patton's voice or was Virgil just imagining it?

"All healed, look, " he turned, arms out displaying his healed arms and shoulders which were all Patton could see with Virgil's shirt on.

"Yay! Celebratory hug?" Patton extended his arms making grabby hands.

"Uh- deh- er yeah, " Virgil leaned through the window and it was a super awkward angle, but Patton smelled like shampoo which wasn't the most specific smell, but it was pleasant, and not which, which is because, because some guys just smell like sweat and call it "natural musk", but Patton seemed to believe in soap.

They were pulling back awkwardly after maybe too long. Should Virgil have pulled back sooner? Did Patton feel weird about it now?

Dee came in the front door a moment later.

"Oh Dee good, Deimos and I are going to go out now, " Patton said brightly.

"Really? He said yes?"

"I was the one who suggested it?" Virgil said feeling confused.

"Oh right you two are just doing your make-believe kidnapping thing again, that's… nice."

What had Dee thought he was saying?

"Okay gotta go!" Patton hopped out the window abruptly, shutting the window behind him.

"So you're free tonight? I understand if you don't feel like it…" Virgil shifted from foot to foot.

"No, actually I've been looking forward to talking to you! I'm glad you came early!"

"Hey only by like twenty minutes…"

Patton giggled, "You're right it is a _minute_ difference."

Virgil smirked, shook his head, and turned around to let Patton climb on his back.

Virgil decided to go to this little park that he and Logan used to walk to when they were kids. It was hard to see unless you drove right past it because it was nestled in between buildings making it nearly invisible to people on the major roads nearby. It was nice, peaceful. This was the first time Virgil had been here after dark.

The moonlight was shining through the leaves above. Virgil put Patton down near the swing set and sat down on one of the swings.

"Wow, this is nice!" Patton said circling around the swing the other way and sitting on it so he and Virgil were facing each other.

"...why?" Virgil asked, indicating his directions the swing.

"Because it goes both ways! Kinda like me!"

That one got a laugh out of Virgil.

"Oh yeah, me too, kinda, " He responded with a nervous laugh, "I like guys and nonbinary people."

"Cool! I'm pansexual and pantastic!"

"Your jokes are pan-ful to listen to." Virgil snarked back.

Patton grinned, "Oh come on I thought it panned out really well."

Virgil laughed.

“I… I kinda missed this,” He admitted.

“I did too,” Patton said. He reached out his hand into the space between the swings. 

Virgil, against his better judgment, took it and was greeted with a comforting warmth.

"You're hands are so cold!"

"Haha yeah, I run cold."

"That's okay, I'll warm you up."

“You know I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble if Fae saw us.”

“Oh don’t worry Fae only goes out to steal things these days.”

“Actually he paid me a visit today when I was about to knock on your window…”

“Oh did he?” Patton looked serious now.

“Uh yeah he did,” Virgil said vaguely concerned by Patton's look.

“What did he say?”

“Warned me not to hurt you.” Virgil looked to where their hands were joined, unable to look at Patton's eyes.

“Or what?” Patton asked.

“Uh just ya know, vague threats nothing much.”

Patton's eyebrows drew together, “He threatened you?” Virgil wished he hadn't brought it up.

“Vaguely. It’s cool. I just don’t think he’d like the idea of us doing this. Especially since I’m in costume. If were seen it could get you in trouble…” Virgil started to pull away.

Patton’s grip on his hand didn’t loosen, “I'll talk to him. If that’s the only reason you’re pulling back then don’t.”

Virgil didn’t.

“Deimos…” Patton began, seeming to have a question.

“Um yeah?” He answered feeling painfully aware of how much pressure he was putting on Patton’s hand and how much he wasn’t.

“Do you maybe wanna go… out… sometime? Like… on a date?”

Virgil’s brain power-cycled. Patton really? Did he? This was great!

He felt elation swell in his chest for a moment before it was popped brutally by the knowledge that he couldn’t say yes. For so, so many reasons, but most of them came back to his and Patton's safety.

“Oh, you ah wouldn’t want to do that. I’m a known criminal, " Virgil said with a laugh as if it didn't take every ounce of self-control he had to say no.

"I didn't ask what I wanted to do. I asked what you wanted to do, " Patton gave his hand a small squeeze.

"I…" He needed to tell Patton that he wasn't interested. He needed to say it, the words _should_ have been coming out of his mouth. But he couldn't tell such a big lie. Not to Patton.

"It's okay if you're not interested in me that way but… you haven't given me an answer…" Patton said, hope still in his voice.

"Patton that would be too dangerous and-"

"Deimos, you're avoiding the question. I swear if you tell me that you don't like me romantically I will never bring it up again, " Patton promised, making it clear that Virgil was going to have to actually say it for Patton to stop asking.

"I can't tell you that, " Virgil whispered, barely audible.

Patton pursed his lips. 

"That's okay Deimos, I appreciate how cautious you are." Patton pulled back his hand.

Virgil could tell Patton meant it, though he looked sad. The two of them sat quietly for a long while, swinging lightly back and forth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I'm sure some of you are thinking "oh my God they fucked up Eros and Psyche" please remember that there are so many iterations of myths that the one I've heard is different from the one you know and also Dee was really tired and trying to make a point so 
> 
> Also, I'm sorry about the angst!!  
If it's any consolation it isn't going to get better any time soon!


	9. Until Someone Gets Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright darlings so due to personal life I didn't have time to continue the plot because the next plot point deserves my whole attention
> 
> So please enjoy this set of dream sequences that give a look into the boys' state of mind
> 
> Fair warning though this chapter isn't pleasant, there's light horror and gore there's a lot of anxiety on everyone's parts haha
> 
> FEEL FREE TO SKIP  
This chapter does not affect the plot at all it's just character stuff

Logan was in a dark room. Sitting on a chair that wobbles back and forth. It unpleasant, creaking noises as it rocked. There was a spotlight casting a harsh white light on him.

A chessboard was in front of him with a game already in progress. His opponent was a woman with a small crowd behind her whispering encouragements. When Logan tried to look at her face she became blurred and unfocused. 

There was some off about her and her supporters. They were… silent.

Logan couldn't hear a thing from them.

Not a murmur.

Not a thought.

At his shoulder stood Dee. he was surprised Dee hadn’t

"It's your turn, " Dee reminded him, "try that piece." He said gesturing to the horse-shaped figure on the board. The knight.

Logan reached for it and heard Dee think, 'He doesn't have a chance.'

"I can do this, " Logan snapped at him, it felt important that he win, "I just need to plan."

"Oh yes because planning has gone _so_ well for you this far. Stop thinking!"

"I can't."

Dee just shook his head, 'Then we lose.'

***

Virgil always hated playing dress-up so he didn't know why he agreed to play it now. In fact, he didn't really remember agreeing to play.

Who was he playing with? 

His mask was in his hands as he gazed into the bathroom mirror. Why did he have to be the villain?

"You don't _have_ to be the bad guy. You could be the squire! Or the sidekick…" A voice said off to the side. 

Virgil turned. It was Roman. He and Patton were sitting on the edge of the bathtub both dressed in medieval costumes. Roman as a prince and Patton as the princess.

Patton pouted, "Why can't Virgil be the hero?"

"The game was my idea," Roman said crossing his arms and turning away stubbornly. 

Patton frowned and stood up. He took the mask from Virgil and reached around tying it around the back of his head. 

Patton smiled and whispered, "I guess it's probably better this way anyway, it takes a lot of bravery to be the hero."

"I'm brave, " Virgil said defensively.

"Oh well yeah I guess you're brave in your own way, " Roman gave him a patronizing smile.

"I am!"

Patton held up his hands and smiled comfortingly, "That's okay you have plenty of other good qualities like… uh… well… you're very punctual." 

Punctual. That was all Patton had.

"C'mon guy let's play," Roman said impatiently.

***

Dee was blindfolded. 

At first, he thought that he just was somewhere dark, but he felt the cloth on his face, itching against his scales. He hated wearing things on his face. 

He tugged at the knot but his fingers couldn't find a grip. He heard a voice in a nearby place saying something that he knew he should be paying attention to.

"Twenty-eight, twenty niiiiine, thirty! Ready or not here I come."

Dee's stomach dropped, needed to hide. It was important that whoever that was never find him. He ran down what sounded like a hallway, fingers scrabbling for purchase across the walls. Surely there had to be a closet or cabinet or bedroom here somewhere. 

He heard footsteps approaching, slow measured, not frantic. He looked around in a futile effort to see which direction the seeker was coming from. Why was he playing hide and seek with a blindfold? 

Finally, he found a door. He jerked the door open threw himself inside and shut it behind him. He put his back to the door, panting as he heard footsteps come closer. He tried to silence his breathing so they couldn't hear him, leaning heavily against the cool wood.

The footsteps came near the door. Was it Dees imagination or had they slowed slightly. But then they moved on down the hall with the light, steady, thud of rubber heels on tile.

The door swung out dropping Dee to the ground. He could feel the presence of another person leaning over him.

"I found you!"

***

It's always "the floor is lava". Why can't ever be "the floor is a reasonable amount of love an affection"?

And yet here Roman stood atop the quickly sinking dresser as the actual fucking lava welled up around him. How was there actual fucking lava in his living room? 

How the fuck was he supposed to know? Sometimes these things just happen.

He kept trying to summon his boots, but every time he did they were five sizes too big and slipped off his feet and right into the lava. 

He looked up and saw all the people he knew sitting on a lava proof couch, laughing as they saw yet another pair of boots slid off and fall into the lava.

Virgil, Logan, Patton, Deimos, Remus, Dee, that bitchy reporter, even Fae. And they were laughing as the dresser sunk further in the lava. 

Roman felt the heat coming upward in unbearable waves, making it hard to breathe.

"Virgil!" He called as he scootched to the side narrowly avoiding the molten rock which was now overtaking the surface of the wood.

Virgil said nothing but broke into a fresh round of cackling.

"Fa-" He began, then a broken scream was ripped from his throat as the lava touched his foot. It devolved into a weak sob, "Fae please."

Fae rolled his eyes and exchanged an annoyed look with the others. Why wouldn't they help him? Did everyone really want him to die?

Roman balanced precariously on the last corner of the wood that was safe before even that fell to the rising tide of molten pain that flowed over his body,   
ripping apart his cells,   
pulling him down,  
until it finally flowed over his face. 

The last thing he heard was his own scream coming to an abrupt halt as his lungs filled with lava and the laughter growing ever more hysterical.

***

That night Logan woke up with a slow creeping feeling of anxiety but the strange dream quickly faded from his mind and he returned to sleep. The feelings it gave him however, would linger for longer than he'd like to admit.

Virgil woke up feeling sick to his stomach and had to pace his room for a few minutes to brush off the shame he felt in the dream. He knew neither of them saw him that way… right?

Dee woke a small cry, his heart was pounding in his chest and he was panting. He didn't understand why that dream scared him so badly. It _didn't_ scare him, he insisted to himself as he pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them tightly.

As Roman woke up he accidentally brought something of his dreams into the real world with him. He didn’t get burned and he dispelled it quickly, but the scorch marks on his comforter were too bad to be ignored or forgotten. He would have to buy a new one, he couldn't sleep with the reminder.

Patton didn’t sleep that night. He stayed up baking cookies because he had feelings and sometimes baking helped with that. He therefore escaped the trend of weird/scary ass dreams. He didn't, however, escape trend the sleep deprivation and drinking far too caffeine the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the length but as Insaid i had neither the time nor energy that i would like to put into the next chapter so hopefully next week  
Just wanted to still give you guys a little something to tide you over for now  
Thanks for reading!


	10. Novacaine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey i got it in on time... Barely   
I have about half an hour where i live before its officially Wednesday so it counts
> 
> This chapter is themed off of Novacaine by Fall Out Boy
> 
> Thanks everyone for your patience!

Dee, when Patton had come home the other night, was prepared for the worst. He had a pile of blankets near the end of his bed, he had a pile of DVDs on his bedside table and his laptop was ready for a movie night (after all they wouldn't want to be in the living room for this). He also bought three kinds of ice cream because he didn't know which was said: "I'm sorry that your crush cares too much about you to date you".

Once they showed up Patton was smiling and laughing the whole time until Deimos left. 

"How did it go?" Dee asked as Patton got a cup of water and started drinking it quickly.

"I wish I hadn't asked, " He said quietly.

Dee stood up straighter, had Deimos been hurtful? Was Dee gonna have to follow through on his threat? He _really_ didn't want to.

"What happened?" He asked.

"You shouldn't have threatened him. Don't do that again, " Patton said avoiding the question.

"I'm sorry, " Dee lied, "But what happened?"

"He didn't say he didn't like me. But he doesn't want to date me, too dangerous. He didn't even consider dating me because he wasn't willing to risk me getting hurt, " Patton slumped in on himself and looked miserable, "Why is he so _good_? Why can't he be just a little bit of a jerk?"

Good Deimos had done well. Dee respected that he had the self-control to tell Patton no.

Dee sighed, strolled to the freezer and pulled out one of the cartons, "Oh yes because you are known for your preference toward jerks." He said sarcastically. 

"You never know, I might have liked him anyway if he was just a _little_ less good."

Dee gave him a _look_.

"I know…" Patton sighed, defeated.

"Ready for ice cream and binge-watching Pixar movies?"

"Thank you, " Patton said with a soft smile. "Yor a good friend Dee."

Dee melted a little at that 

"No, I'm not. This isn't for you, I'm trying to put on weight for the winter, " Dee said matter-of-factly.

"It's June, " Patton said, his smile widening a little.

"Well, it's never too early to prepare." He said stubbornly.

***

Dee had dressed up in his Fae costume and was standing on the fire escape again. When Deimos showed up he saw Dee standing there and jumped out of his skin (and nearly off the fire escape).

“Hey hey I was as nice as I could be!” he said defensively.

“Relax, " Dee held up his hands placatingly, "I'm here for something else. I need to talk to you. You are aware of my powers yes? I will take Patton's place for the evening."

Dee demonstrated, making himself look like Patton and promptly changing back.

Deimos spoke slowly, "You're a little too good at that."

"Thank you, " Dee knocked on the window and Patton was there a moment later.

"Fae!" Patton admonished sharply, "I asked you to leave him alone!"

"Sorry Dear but we have villain business, If it's alright with you I'll pretend to be you for the night so the Knight has someone to kidnap but we can handle our affairs."

"Will you two play nice?" Patton asked, eyeing them.

"No I thought tonight would be a good time to take up murder, " Dee rolled his eyes.

"We'll be okay Pat, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious what this is about," Deimos said, seeming to relax somewhat.

"... Okay then, see you both later?" Patton said hopefully.

"Yeah, how about I pick you up on Tuesday?"

"Sounds great."

Patton shut the window and Dee gestured for Deimos to walk downward.

Deimos raised an eyebrow and also gestured for Dee to go first. They ended up walking downward side by side, both unwilling to do what the other wished.

"Alright what do you want Fae?" Deimos asked as they walked along the road toward the downtown area. There was a slight tremble to his voice, almost undetectable.

"To tell you that I have a lot of respect for you, " Dee answered honestly.

Deimos stopped in his tracks, "I'm sorry. _What_?"

"Keep walking sweetheart, we got a long way to go and I'm not riding you as Patton does. Oh wait that came out wrong, sorry I'm sure that's a sore subject, " Dee said not at all on accident and not at all sorry.

Deimos caught up with him and kept walking, a stormy look on his masked face.

"What I said is that I respect you. You have more self-control than most people, it's admirable. I was questioning why Logan chose someone who seemed like such a brainless oaf but clearly, I misread you."

"'Brainless Oaf'?"

"In my defense for quite a while it seemed as though you solved every problem by punching it away."

"I mean… I did, but that's just because I have little to no other skills."

"I can't judge. My skills literally amount to 'playing advanced dress up'. And anyway you’ve proved you aren't an idiot. You put Patton’s safety above whatever feelings you two might have."

"I'm sorry, how is this your business?" Deimos asked sounding annoyed.

It wasn't Dee's business actually.

"It's my business because it's time to welcome you to the club of villains whose love story didn't end happily."

"Oh, Jesus Christ you like Patton?" Deimos demanded.

"No??? Patton isn't the only guy in the whole city. Chill, " Dee rolled his eyes.

Deimos nodded, "Oh… so you wanna fuck the Knight?"

"No."

"Why you always lying?" 

"Quoting vine? What are you twelve?"

"Wearing patent leather shoes? What are you eighty?"

Dee sneered, "I don't like you." This was entirely untrue, he officially liked Deimos very much, it was rare that someone was bold enough to clap back with an insult like that especially considering how clearly afraid of Dee he was just a short time ago.

"Feeling's mutual Fae." And by this Dee suspected he also meant 'you are tolerable'.

"Good. Now how are we to go about befuddling Knight?"

"I was thinking since you're pretending to be Patton we could do a riskier situation than usual."

"Ah yes because you're more willing to risk my injury than Patton's."

"Yes I am and so are you, " Deimos said with certainty.

"Fair point, alright what do you have in mind emo?"

"Come with me I'll show you

***

About twenty minutes later on the bridge…

"I'll just dangle you over the edge of the bridge," Deimos said leaning over the guardrail to look over.

Dee gasped, offended, "Nuh-uh I'm not going back in that river I don't care if it's June this time that thing is colder than the Styx."

"I wouldn't drop you! I'm strong enough to hold you there for a while the water is there just so you don't have to be scared of dying if you do fall."

Dee groaned. "Fine, but I swear to God if I get hypothermia because one more superhuman decided I needed an impromptu swim I will personally kill you, " He said seriously. 

"I'm shaking. Well, he'll be here soon so, " Deimos waved his hand vaguely, "suit up or whatever."

"_Suit Up?_"

"Yeah ya know- like- look like Patton."

"No no, I knew what you were asking it was just an incredibly stupid way to ask it."

Deimos flipped him off.

Dee changed from his Fae glamour to one of Patton. 

"Damn your good at that, you did mess one thing up though."

Dee looking himself up and down. He didn't see a problem.

"Glasses dipshit, " Deimos said with an eye roll.

He was certainly feeling sassy today. Dee clicked his tongue and made glasses appear as part of the disguise.

"Satisfied?" He raised an eyebrow at Deimos.

"Yeah, you're good. Oh shit, here he comes. Fair warning he hates coming to the bridge so this is probably going to be more violent than usual."

Hated coming to the bridge? Why? He had always seemed so calm here with Dee and- oh wait… could _that_ be why? Did he not want to think about Dee? Dee knew they didn't exactly end on a good note, but he never thought the Knight cared that much. Enough to hate a whole location?

"I should probably hold onto you in some way, " Deimos said seeming to find the very idea unpleasant. Dee couldn't help but agree, he was about to shed his skin on his scaley side and nothing felt worse than people touching his scales when he was shedding. He offered Deimos his arm with human skin hoping the could avoid contact beyond that.

"Deimos!" The Knight shouted as he came close enough to be heard, "You detestable demon, why have you brought Patton to this place?"

He did sound angry. Dee felt his heart do a strange flip flop maneuver in his chest at the sight of the Knight so close.

"Because you idiotic enemy of mine here is where I will make you watch your friend fall into the water and drown and it will be all your fault! How many lives must be lost in this river because of you?"

"Damn someone's going for the jugular, " Dee whispered mildly impressed.

"What can I say, I was inspired."

"The man we lost in this river was lost by his own doing. I have not taken any lives, " Knight declared honestly, "However be warned foul creature, that could soon change if you do not release that man!"

Wow, a murder threat. That seemed a little extreme.

"In order to kill me you would have to first catch me so I don't think I am wrong in saying 'nanny nanny boo boo', " Deimos had a smug smile.

"I'm gonna lift you now," He whispered to Dee. 

He grabbed the front of Dee's shirt and Dee clung to his wrist and did his best fake scream of terror. It was completely fake because he was obviously completely composed at that moment.

"Put him down! Wait no! Bad word choice! Just give him to me."

"No, in just a moment I will drop him into the river below and you will never see him again, " Deimos announced.

"Drop me, " Dee whispered suddenly. He knew Deimos struggled to keep the Knight on his toes. This would help.

"What no!" Deimos whispered in shock, "Why do people keep asking me to do that?"

"He'll catch me, " Dee said feeling certain.

Deimos rolled his eyes at Dee's trust.

The Knight stepped closer, "Deimos bring him back over the rail, I demand it." 

"Fine it's your unplanned swim, " Deimos whispered, then raised his voice, "Your demands mean nothing to me, Knight." And he released his grip.

And then just air.

Dee was free-falling. He wasn't sure what would happen when he hit the water. He wasn't as high up as when the Knight dropped him, but he also didn't have a machine on his back to slow the fall. He probably would break a few bones if The Knight didn't save him. It was certainly taking a long time. What if he didn- oof!

He hit something solid.

The knight was holding him in his arms and Dee realized that this was a stupid decision. This close he could smell the Knight's soap. He could feel the familiar lean arms. Now it would hurt even more to pretend home of this happened. Dee should have known better than to get so close.

Deimos was looking over the rail and when he saw that everyone was safe he visibly relaxed.

"Patton I'm sorry I can't believe he…" The Knight paused. They hovered there for a few long silent moments while he didn't finish his sentence.

"You can't believe he what?" Dee prompted in his best Patton impression. 

"Sorry! Uh, can't believe he actually dropped you. Hey, can you and I talk after I do away with him for the night?"

"Of course!" He said brightly knowing that's what Patton would say.

"Great okay." And they flew upward.

The knight set him on the bridge so gently. Dee swore this gentle attitude was going to kill him.

He made quick work of the fight tonight clearly not having his heart in it and was rushing along with little banter. Dee sat on a beach until Deimos just gave up trying to get the Knight's attention and made his exit. 

"See you both around, " he said sounding defeated.

"Bye Deimos, " Knight said raising his hand in a parting wave as Deimos took off running. 

Then The Knight rounded on him.

"Hi."

"Hey there!" He said trying to come off as cheerful despite how nervous he was about being alone with the Knight.

"I just wanted to say thank you for your help with the baseball bat the other night."

Baseball bat? Patton must have neglected to mention something…

"Oh it was no problem, it seemed like you were really batting a thousand, so I was happy to help!" Dee joked cheerfully.

Knight moved sat down on the bench next to him, close enough that their arms were touching. He wouldn't sit so close if he knew it was Dee.

"It's good to see you Fae."

Dee nearly snapped his neck with how quickly he turned, "What?" He said, dropping his Patton impression.

"Fae I knew it was you from the moment you landed in my arms. Patton's heavier than you for one thing and I could feel the muscles in your arms. Patton's softer than you. But I had to be sure so I made up the thing about baseball bats, figured if you went along with it it must be you."

Dee changed to his Fae disguise and just started at Knight, baffled.

"Why are you here Fae? Don't get me wrong, I like that you're here but something must be going on for you to get involved in any of this."

"My fellow villain needed support, he just made a difficult decision and I came out to talk to him and we figured he could just pretend to kidnap me for tonight."

"Be careful Fae, he's genuinely dangerous as he proved today."

Dear lord, he was oblivious.

"Sir Knight _I_ am genuinely dangerous, _he_ could only hurt me if he could find me, " Dee said with no small amount of venom I'm his words.

Knight sighed, shaking his head, "God I hate you sometimes, I give even the smallest bit of human decency and you act offended by it."

"We both know I'm not human though Knight."

He shrugged, "Superhuman decency then."

"What do you hope to gain with your decency anyway?" 

It had been months and it had been killing Dee. What on earth was making The Knight so _nice_ to him? What would he get out of it?

"A friend perhaps."

"We can't be friends, I'm the villain, and officially declared dead for that matter, " Dee rolled his eyes and let his annoyances show.

"Then what are we Fae?" The Knight snapped back, "Because I don't have a word for whatever this is. Lord knows I _should_ hate you. You make all my work at cleaning up the city pointless because you've been strengthening the underground economy. You breathed life back into the dying lungs of the crime syndicate who was damn near dying off. I should hate you."

"Oh sweet talker, " Dee said sarcastically.

"Fae…" He had a warning tone to his voice as if to say that if Dee pushed much harder he would lose his temper.

Too late though Dee had already lost his.

"Don't Fae me. It's not as if this is all _my_ fault."

"Yes, it is because you have dragged me down with you to your level! I'm lying to the press! I let a thief go last night! I-"

Dee interrupted, his mouth hanging open in shock, "You _what_?"

His voice sounded miserable as he repeated, "I let him go! He was stealing food! From Costco! What do you even say to that? 'Oh, you better put that back and go back outside and starve.' No! I could say that and he looked so scared!"

Dee was grinning. "You let him go," He repeated in disbelief.

"Don't rub it in, this isn't funny. Even if it was the right thing to do, I still failed at my job as an enforcer of the law!" He turned away and crossed his arms petulantly.

Dee's grin slid away, clearly, this was something Knight had been struggling with.

He spoke softly, "No sir Knight, you aren't an enforcer of the law. You are a superhero. And last night you fulfilled the second half of that title."

The Knight turned back to look at him, "...That's the nicest thing you've said since I've known you."

Dee shrugged, "That's the nicest thing you've done since I've known you. If you give me a name or address I'll see to it that some funds come his way. It's hard to get out of that position once you're in it, a lot of people just need some money to get them back on track."

The Knight hesitated only a moment before saying, "Mark Macaulay."

"I'll let my people know, " Dee said feeling rather cool for being able to say that phrase.

"...How did you get into all that Robin Hood stuff anyway?" The Knight asked as if this was a question that had been weighing on him.

Dee laughed, "Robin Hood. I grew up on folklore, fairy tales, myths, you name it. Robin Hood was one that really got my attention. I wanted to be him for as long as I can remember." Dee said, acutely aware of the fact that giving the Knight this much information could be signing the warrant for his arrest but he wasn't inclined to care right at that moment.

The Knight nodded understanding, "I won't use this against you," He said as if knowing just what Dee was thinking. 

"You have my word, " He added seriously.

"Thank you, " Dee said softly.

The Knight hoisted himself off the bench, "Well, I should- I should be going." He stood to walk away.

"Dear Knight, " Dee said, scolding himself once again for the use of 'Dear'.

The Knight stopped and turned to look at him, "Yes?"

"Perhaps... we are friends. Just a little bit."

"Just a little bit, " The Knight agreed, a smile evident in his voice even if Dee couldn't see it. Dee wanted to see it, he realized with a start.

Then The Knight turned away and walked off into the night, not bothering to fly away.

***

In the following weeks, Dee heard whisperings of someone looking for him. Someone from the Other side. It went so far as to cause the other criminals to get nervous. Which is how Dee ended up receiving an audience with the head of the major crime syndicate in the city. 

Which was just about one of the damn scariest sentences there was in the English language.

He was lead into a large room on the eighth story of the building they owned. There was a small round table in the room with a clean glass top. Floor to ceiling windows that spanned the wall off to the right showed all of downtown. The skyline at night was beautiful. There was a man standing in front of the window with his arms behind his back. The head of the whole underground, Julian Penn himself.

He turned with a cheerful smile as he heard Dee enter, "Fae!" 

"Julian!" Dee addressed him on a first name basis because that was how he preferred to be addressed. Dee was almost certain that it was to prove a point. To prove that he held absolute power in this city and could afford to be friendly because that could always change at the drop of a hat.

Or maybe he was just friendly.

Dee tended to read into these things more than he should oftentimes.

"Please have a seat. Do you want anything to drink?" He asked gesturing to the bar cart next to him.

"No thank you, I don't drink," Dee said as he sat.

"Good man wanna keep yourself sharp I see. I can appreciate that." 

Julian didn't sit down, "So as you've probably guessed I didn't call you in for a social visit."

"Did you want a specific item to be procured?" Dee offered although he knew that was not his reason for being called in. If Julian wanted anything in this city it was his, Dee was hardly the best thief they had.

"No, I'm afraid this has more to do with your public image. See, I get that you have this thing going on where you walked the line between legal and illegal. You have this whole vigilante reputation you've been trying to build and that's great. Everybody loves it. Believe me, my son goes absolutely bananas anytime your work comes up in the news, you're his hero. But we're running into a small problem lately, buddy."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, see we've got this Knight guy asking lots of questions. Poking his nose in things that ought not to be poked. He's looking for you."

Dee froze. So that's who was asking around to find out where he was.

"Oh."

"Yeeaaaaah and you see buddy we know he's off-limits. Him, Patton, Logan-" 

"How do you know about them?" Dee demanded. He knew this was a deliberate move on Julian's part. He was also aware that he had just tipped his hand a little too far. Julian had control of the conversation now.

Julian gave him a good-natured smile, "Oh, c'mon we have to keep good track of everyone we do business with. It's called _organized_ crime for a reason. You understand that right, _Declan_?"

Dee was silent knowing that this man held Dee's whole world in his hands. He didn't know where Julian's information was coming from.

"How do you know my name? Why haven't you told anyone?"

"It's better to have you working with me rather than against me. Not to worry, your secret is safe."

Dee knew that such a favor would need to be paid back eventually.

"Now as I was saying, we know the Knight is off-limits and we'll leave him be for now. But you should go let your pal know that if he keeps digging into things that aren't his business he'll get hurt and there's nothing I can do about that, " Julian spread his hands out as if to show Dee that his hands were clean in this.

Dee swallowed, "Right, thanks for the warning. Anything else I can do for you while I'm here?" 

He was on a leash for Julian now and all the other man would have to do was tug on it and Dee would be forced to do what he wished.

Julian smiled, "Yeah, could you take a selfie with me so my kid believes me when I say that I know you?"

"Oh," Dee was honestly surprised that a lot admired him that much, "Of course."

***

"You. Mother. Fucker." Dee said approaching The Knight from behind later that night.

He whipped around to face Dee, "Oh hi!" He said too genuinely, Dee could practically _hear_ the confused look on his face as he said, "Wait what did I do?"

"You have been meddling. I need you to stop meddling you're making my life hard."

"Meddling? Me? Never!" The Knight said putting an offended hand on his chest.

"Liar, " Dee spat.

He clicked his tongue, "Yeah well, I wanted to see you!"

"You can't just see me because you want to!"

"Why not? I thought we were friends, " He said, his voice rising in anger.

"We aren't friends!" Dee snapped, "I said we were a _little_ bit friends. A tiny, _miniscule, infinitesimal_ amount. We couldn't be called pals on a good day!"

"Why are you so pissy? So I asked one or two people where I could find you, so what?!"

"That was not one or two people! You asked six! Each of them emailed me personally to let me know how uncomfortable it made them to be caught between us! Then Julian Penn himself called me in for a meeting to tell me to tell you that if you don't knock it off the syndicate will knock _you_ off!"

"Well, if we aren't friends why do you care?!" The Knight demanded.

"I don't care. I don't feel a thing for you." Dee said, trying very hard to mean it.

"Yeah well, the feeling is mutual!"

"No, it's not. You wanted to see me!"

He growled his frustration, "Fine I'm a liar, what of it?"

"Well you're a bad liar that's all," Dee said crossing his arms.

"You are too, " Knight said. 

Dee sighed defeatedly, "Okay so I am, " He admitted, "but that's beside the point. The point is that if you wanna get my attention we need something other than nearly getting yourself offed by Julian's guys."

"Like what?"

"A sign. How about... a scarf on the bridge. If one of us wants to see the other we'll tie a scarf to the rail and we'll meet there as soon as reasonably possible."

The was a long moment while The Knight considered his offer, "I love that idea! It's poetic!"

"More _pathetic_ in my opinion, but to each his own, " A voice said from an alleyway off to their left. They both turned to look as Deimos appeared from the shadows. He gave them a sarcastic little wave. 

"Ah it appears that I should be going, " Dee said with an awkward laugh. How long had the third man been there?

He started backing away slowly.

"See you around Fae, " Knight called over his shoulder as he and Deimos began combat. And if Dee's eyes lingered on him a moment longer than strictly necessary well that wasn't something that anyone had to know about was it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey we got to finally meet my OC the Jules man himself!  
Hope y'all liked this, things are really starting to get weird!


	11. Jagged Edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof another close call here, just got back from a choir performance and immediately started trying to edit this haha  
Warnings: mentions of sex, mentions of alcohol, I dunno there might be more  
Hey I hope you guys know that you can always ask me to tag or warn for anything right?  
Like even friggin unicorns of it makes you more comfortable I will put a warning okay?

Logan was sitting in his room shuffling papers around his desk when he got a paper cut. He sucked air through his teeth at the small shock of pain.

He never had a high threshold for pain so it was likely for the best that he wasn't the one going out and fighting nightly.

He stood, exited the room, and grabbed the first aid kit. He opened it holding his left index finger out of the way as he shuffled through the near-empty kit looking for band-aids. 

He found none. All he came across was about two dozen butterfly stitches. Roman and Virgil must have bought these by accident. Which meant they were all out of band-aids. And they would be back here bleeding and injured with no band-aids. 

He checked his watch. The drugstore closed hours ago. He would have to wait until tomorrow to get more bandaids.

The front door opened. 

"Hello, dearest friend and companion it is a joy and wonder to see you!” Roman waved his arm dramatically as he entered.

Logan raised his eyebrows, “You had a good night I take it?”

‘Better than good,’ Roman thought dreamily.

“What happened?”

‘Fae!”

“Oh, sweet newton what happened?” Nothing with the two of them was good.

‘Well see it all started with-’

The front door opened again.  
“Hey guys,” Virgil said walking in.

Roman cut his eyes toward Logan, ‘I’ll tell you later.’

Logan nodded in understanding.

“We have run out of bandaids, " He said to Virgil as he entered.

“What? I just bought some?” Virgil looked into the first aid kit.

“You bought butterfly stitches so unless you have any wounds that need to be held closed we are fresh out.”

Virgil frowned, “Fine, then we’ll head to my place we have plenty, Patton and Dee keep us stocked up.”

“But it’s so late I don’t want to go out!” Roman whined.

“Too bad we’re going, " Virgil responded with a derisive scoff.

Roman fell dramatically onto the bean bag reaching his arms upward, “Carry me.” He demanded.

“No!” Logan said futilely as Virgil picked Roman up and slung him over his shoulder.

“Wait wait not like that!” Roman complained, his face hanging against Virgil's back.

Virgil clicked his tongue, “I agree to carry you all the way to my apartment and you complain?”

“Oh, c’mon Twenty-One Panics carry me like you care about me!” 

Logan rolled his eyes at both the nickname and the sentiment.

“You’re assuming an awful lot there, " Virgil said with a smirk.

“Pleeeease?”

“Virgil for the love of galileo just hold him properly,” Logan said with a fake exasperated sigh.

“Fine.”

He dropped Roman on the floor.

Roman spluttered for a moment looking very offended, “OW! What- what was that for?!”

“Well, I couldn’t very well move you while holding you. Climb on my back.”

Roman clambered to his feet grumbling and dusting off his clothes. He hopped onto Virgil’s back.

“Much better,” Roman said with a pout still in his voice.

“I hate you both,” Logan said shaking his head.

“You love me!” They both countered in unison.

This may have been true, Logan would neither confirm nor deny.

They all headed out the door and to Virgil’s apartment.

***

When Roman, Virgil, and Logan arrived it was already quite late but Patton was glad for the company. Dee had already recounted the events of the evening to him and was now lost in thought, making a snack and lost in deeply romantic thought. Patton could feel the infatuation coming off him in waves.

So it was nice to have other people. Virgil and Roman were in the bathroom, getting patched up from their night at the gym. Dee was making pasta and conversing quietly with Logan. Patton had turned on Moana and was crocheting to the sound of The Rock singing. 

You could say he was listening to Rock music

It was strange having so many people moving around the small space so late at night. Nice, but just edging on overwhelming.

See, he had found that the better he knew a person, the easier it was to sense what they were feeling, even from across the room. For example, Dee could be anywhere in a two-block radius and Patton would get something from him, however faint. 

Logan was clearly stressed but that was probably just because the larger the group the louder it was for him. He also had another feeling under it that felt more muddled. That was odd usually his emotions we're clear.

And the weird thing is, despite the fact that Patton hadn't really spent that much time with Virgil, his powers had been strengthening with him. Patton could feel him from the bathroom.

Virgil was really stoic on the outside, but on the inside, he was quite emo-tional. Wait, was that where the word emo came from? Did that even count as a pun? Shoot!

Even more strangely as soon as Roman entered the apartment Patton started receiving all sorts of feelings from him. He had barely even _talked_ to Roman. Why could he feel Roman so clearly?

Suddenly, Patton felt a shift in Logan's demeanor and looked over to where he was leaning against the counter.

'What?' Patton mouthed at him.

"Hold that thought, Dee, " Logan said standing up straight.

"Was that a _pun_?!" Dee demanded. Logan shot him a withering look and strode toward Patton.

"You can sense everyone's emotions here?" He whispered.

"Yeah, I think so, at least quite a bit of it, kinda weird though. I barely know Roman and Virgil to be honest."

Logan was absolutely radiating stress now. Patton wouldn't have even needed his powers to see how every muscle in Logan's body had tensed. 

"That's" Logan was cut off by a booming voice exiting the bathroom.

"Thank you so much, Patton, for the use of your supplies. I was not looking forward to staining my new blanket with my blood already, " Roman exclaimed.

"Oh, so you're done raiding our first aid kit to fuel your drinking habit? Oh, I mean boxing. Or whatever the excuse is this week."

"What do you mean _excuse_?"

"Oh right sorry, I forgot. We're supposed to totally believe that training at a boxing gym after it closes would yield that many bruises. What did the punching bag grow arms and hit you back? And drinking Ha! Please, even I couldn't find someone who would fight me every night just for saying dumb shit in a bar. Not to mention that there isn't a single bar in the city that would let you in if you constantly got into fights the way you claim."

"What are you implying?!" Roman demanded. The tension in the room was crushing 

"I'm not anything. I am building up to _saying_ that if you're going to be doing BDSM every night the least you can do is make your dom clean up the mess he makes and just buy you some bandaids! I don't care what you do to get off, but I'm not going to have you using my bandaids to do it."

And just like that, the tension was gone as quickly as it came. Logan collapsed onto the couch bonelessly. He clearly had been expecting worse, though Patton couldn't think what.

"Well, I never!" Roman exclaimed, shocked.

"But wait Dee Virgil has the same bruises so your theory doesn't hold up!" Patton pointed out.

"No, no, I genuinely think that Virgil does go work out every night. That is the only explanation for those arms of his."

Patton placed down slightly embarrassed at the mention of Virgil's muscles.

"Stay out of my business, " Roman snarled, "Goodbye, Patton, bye V, I think it's time to go." 

Logan hauled himself off the couch looking exhausted. Truthfully neither one of them had any business going out right now.

"Wait!" Patton called before they reached the door. They stopped and turned.

"Guys it's three AM, you're both exhausted. It's not safe for you to be walking around this late anyway. Just stay here for the night we have plenty of room! Roman, you could have the couch, Logan you could…" Patton search for an idea. 

"He and I could share a bed, " Virgil offered.

Logan nodded slowly, "That sounds like a practical course of action.” He clearly didn't want to have to walk home.

“Patton stop inviting that vagrant to stay in our home!” Dee exclaimed. 

Both Logan and Patton leveled him with a look. Dee slouched down sulkily.

“Hhhhh fine. Who wants pasta?” He conceded bitterly.

“Depends what are you putting on it?” Logan asked walking back into the kitchen.

“Butter,” Dee said going back to what he was doing.

Patton went to his room and started gathering the six or seven blankets he had crocheted so that Roman could sleep with them.

“Here,” He said passing the pile of multicolored yarn into Roman’s arms. At this range, he picked up on something that he hadn’t before.

Affection? 

Wait no _attraction_?

It wasn’t directed toward Patton, of course, but Roman was definitely romantically interested in _someone_.

Patton always thought it was weird feeling other peoples' attraction. It felt like touching the sharp edge of something that had been broken in half and trying to imagine what it must have been like as a whole. Very confusing.

But this… it felt like the reflection of something familiar. Like he knew the other side of this. He grasped desperately for a hint of what it might have been, but Roman pulled away too quickly thanking him for the blankets.

Patton tried to shake it off and went to get a drink of water. Sometimes he got too wrapped up in what his powers were telling him. It was probably nothing.

He leaned past Dee to get to the cups and Dee’s emotions hit him in a wave of realization. 

"oh…" He said softly. They matched. Roman's and Dee's feelings matched.

"Patton. Your room. Now." Logan said firmly, touching Patton's shoulder and guiding him away.

"Lo?" Virgil called after them.

But if their feelings matched and Dee's feelings were for the Knight then… Patton's footsteps faltered as the realization dawned.

"Patton. Room." Logan said insistently.

Patton allowed Logan to pull him into the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

"Roman's The Knight..." Patton said quietly.

"Yes." Logan agreed

"And Dee is..."

"Yes."

"Do they know?"

"Of course not. No one knows except us. I knew that having all of you in one place was a bad idea." Logan ran a hand through his hair in irritation.

"Well look on the bright side! At least Deimos isn't here. Then it would be really awkward, " Patton pointed out trying to cheer Logan up despite the fact that he was still reeling from this news.

"Ah yes indeed, " Logan laughed awkwardly, "At least there's that."

"Logan I could feel the things coming off of them. It's not just vague infatuation anymore. People have that stuff all the time usually I don't even notice it. It's full-on crush vibes in there and they _hate_ each other in real life." Patton realized now why he could get so much emotion from Roman.

"I know, trust me I know I have to hear every time Dee thinks about Roman's hands or Roman thinks about being pinned down by Dee. Then I also have to hear them both pretend it's nothing or think about how much they are the other in real life."

"Must be exhausting."

Logan signed wearily, "You have no idea."

"Hey, Logan can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"I'm getting interesting sort of infatuation vibes from you, but not romantic obviously but if I may ask who is it for."

"Ah, I am developing a bit of a squish on Remy."

Squish, squish, that term was familiar what did it mean again oh want that was the thing that was like a crush but platonic like you really wanna be friends! 

"Awwwwww that's great! To be honest I'm surprised. I didn't think he's the sort of person you would gravitate to!"

"Patton you obviously don't realize how quiet his mind is." Logan spoke with affection and almost reverence in his voice, "Not for lack of intelligence, of course, but his thoughts are much less frantic than most people's. He simply… peaceful. You're similar in that regard. You just have a plethora of feelings and they rarely get mentally verbalized enough for me to hear them."

"Oh, that makes sense. I bet most everyone is pretty loud."

"Yes. Crowds are bad enough on their own, but hearing their thoughts is… it borders on excruciating at times. Any room with more than eight people is unpleasant if I'm honest. Even this is a bit much for how tired I am."

"Do you want a hug?" Patton offered, extending his hands.

"Not at the moment, thank you. I'm trying to use the relative quiet to clear my head before I attempt to share a room with Virgil. I care for him deeply, but his thoughts move far too quickly these days. He so nervous."

"Do…" Patton stopped himself unsure of it was an alright offer to make. But maybe he would be able to rest better sharing with Patton…?

Patton felt a trickle of affection roll over him from Logan as he heard Patton's thoughts.

"That is very considerate of you. Thank you. I will go explain to Virgil."

Patton was surprised that Logan was planning on simply explaining, "Does he know you have powers?"

"Of course he does. He's my oldest friend."

"Oh…" Pattom thought for a moment before breaking into a grin. "It's always so good to find an ally!"

"Ah yes indeed he's an excellent ally," Logan said cagily

***

"Well congrats Knight you've fucked me, " Fae said as he approached Roman on the bridge.

"Really? I would have thought I would remember that, " Roman commented casually.

Far gave him a confused look, "What do you mean you would have…? Wait no that wasn't what I meant!" His eyes widened

"It's what you said though…" Roman wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"No no! No jokes right now. I am angry and perturbed, " Fae insisted as if reminding himself. 

"Why are you angry?"

"Because our benevolent dictator Julian Penn has started regulating my criminal activities."

"How? You're a free agent." Roman said feeling confused.

"No no. I _used_ to be a free agent. Now I'm his favorite piece to move around the chessboard of this city. He has too much information, I can't risk pissing him off."

"What kind of information?" Roman said slowly.

"He knows my real name and I'm starting to suspect that he knows yours too."

"What?! How?! Do you know who I am?!"

"How does he know anything? He's the most powerful criminal in the city, even some of the cops are in his pocket. Information isn't hard to come by when your that powerful."

"Do you know who I am?"

Far waves away his concerns casually, "No, relax I'm not after your identity. Plus I doubt we even know one another."

"I'm not so sure. We both know Patton…" Roman pointed out.

"True but I prefer not to question it. I just really hope you aren't one of Patton's roommates, " Fae said sounding mildly worried by the idea.

Roman burst out laughing, "Oh please you can't possibly think I'm either of them! Virgil would be too scared to do this and Dee? Well, he's just an asshole. I can't believe you even thought I could be him. Am I so awful?"

Fae's body language shifted suddenly. It no longer seemed as though Fae was playfully upset or that they were merely bickering. Something was genuinely wrong now.

"We, l anyway I just wanted to tell you that it's your fault that I'm dealing with this and well that's all," Fae said sharply and turned to leave. 

“Wait what? You’re leaving just like that?”

“Yes. I am.” Fae confirmed, irritated.

“Why?! Did i say something wrong?” Roman looked around desperately, feeling confused.

“Yes, you did!” 

Fae took a breath and exhaled slowly, when he continued speaking it was barely audible, “You always say just the wrong thing...” He sounded almost sad now. Roman had never seen Fae sad.

“But wait Fae I’m sorry!” Roman said trying to get him to stop walking away.

“No, you're not, you don’t even know what you did wrong!”

“Then _tell_ me!” Roman pleaded, getting the feeling that he had already broken the fragile thing they had been building. How did he always manage to mess up everything that went well for him in his life?

"Leave me alone!" Far growled and stormed off, leaving Roman alone to contemplate what his crime might have been this time.

Roman wanted to fix this. He _had_ to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so this was short but that's cuz it's the build-up for the Next Major Event™ so that's coming  
Also I was so so tired while editing so please be gentle haha


	12. Dramatic Bitch Almost Ends Up In A Ditch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roman is a dramatic bitch  
So this is... Sad  
I'm sorry

When Lucifer fell, they say he screamed so loudly that it shifted the stars in the sky.  
They say that when he fell to earth he cracked the continents into pieces, sending them floating to all other parts of the globe.  
They say that when the morning star fell he changed everything.  
Heaven and hell and the earth between them all irrevocably stained from his newest invention. Sin.

Roman had thought that corruption always happened like that. He wasn't particularly religious, but it just made sense, didn't it? One mighty fall that shakes your foundations. You knew when it was going to happen. Corruption was a choice. Or so he thought.

If that were true Roman wouldn't be here now. Because there was no doubt about it what he was going to attempt would be corrupt, but he needed to talk to Julian. If Roman could just talk to him he could find some way to pay Fae's debt. Then when he smoothed out the problem with Julian, maybe Fae would forgive him. 

And then this would all be worth it.

The ends would justify the means. It wouldn't matter, in the end, that he was consorting with criminals if it meant he got his friend back. It balanced out. You can do some bad things if it's for a good reason right?

But if that were true, why was there still that part of Roman that insisted that this was a mistake?

Standing at the mouth of an alley, working up the courage to approach a Julian. He seemed to be training some criminal recruits but that didn't concern Roman at the moment all cared about was getting to talk to Julian. So he steeled himself and hoped that he could manage to say his piece before the group of about five trainees attacked him.

Later that night, when he woke up, he would remember how _black_ their clothes were even when they stepped into the pool of warm lamplight.  
Like a group of ravens.  
Like a murder.

Later when he woke up he would remember the grim look on Julian's face as he reminded him that he was warned to stay away.

Later when Roman woke up he would feel the effects of their kicks and punches, he would feel the cotton in his head from summoning so many objects that he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Later when Roman woke up he would see three men wreathed in light, shining like angels. They lifted him from the ground and he hoped they wouldn't see how far he fell. 

...this was how man fell from grace, Roman realized. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

***

Virgil was with Patton, in costume, waiting for Roman to arrive when he received the call.

“Lo? What’s up?” He asked, feeling an unpleasant weight settle on his chest. Why was Logan calling him now? He knew Virgil was in costume. He didn’t normally call during the nights.

“Roman’sGoingAfterTheSyndicate,” He spoke so quickly that the words blended together leaving Virgil fumbling to process the meaning behind them, “He’s trying to get their attention. I didn’t hear him think of it until he was leaving just now. Why didn’t I FUCK shitshitshit Virgil if you don’t find him first they _will_ kill him. I’m calling Fae, go find him. Please.”

Virgil felt the weight settle squarely on his lungs. He didn’t breath. Logan didn’t panic unless there was truly cause for it and if Logan believed that Roman was going to die tonight then Virgil really may be at risk of losing one of his best friends.

“Pat I have to go.” He said hanging up the phone and stuffing it in his pocket.

“What’s happening?” Patton asked looking worried.

“Ro-” He cut himself off, now was not the time to get sloppy, “The Knight is going after the syndicate. They’ll kill him if we don’t find him.”

“We?”

“Me and Fae. I’m sorry I have to go,” and Virgil sprinted off into the night hoping that he moved faster than Roman.

“Deimos I can help, let me help!”

“We don’t need you in danger too Pat,” Virgil called back.

***

When you've lost something important to you like your phone or your keys the space between each place you look is filled with a dozen images of what could be happening to that thing right now. What if somebody calls me before I find it? What if the call is important? You know the feeling. We’ve all been there.

But I'm afraid that what Dee was experiencing was something entirely different. 

He was feeling the loss of something, some_one_ priceless to you. 

And I truly hope you haven't been unlucky enough to experience that.

It would be one thing of he could be sure that Julian already had him but he couldn't be sure of anything and that was so much worse.

He sprinted down each side street calling for the Knight. It was hard to believe that he had spent the past week ignoring his scarves on the bridge. This was Dee’s fault. He knew this. If he had just set aside his pride and met with him then maybe he could have convinced the knight not to do this. If he hadn't gone out with Deimos that night a couple weeks ago. If he hadn't left his role as rival. If he hadn't been Fae in the first place. It could have been different, it _would_ have been different.

A million other "if only"s flew through his head as he ran through the streets. He could only hope that for once in his life the Knight would have some sense and would change his mind. And Dee hoped that for once in his own life he might have a bit of luck. 

***

Patton almost missed him. He was so consumed with his own fear and worry for Roman that he almost missed the faint twinge of panic he felt that didn't belong to him.

He whipped around and looked down the road as if he would see the source of it. Then he heard a faint shout.

Patton ran down the road in the direction of the sound. His breaths coming in pants. He didn't normally run and this wasn’t a good time for a reminder of that.

As he ran the panic built to fear, pain, terror, and then it stopped all at once. 

It just stopped. Which was a million times worse than anything that came before. But still, the sound of voices nearby lead Patton where he needed to go. He came to a stop right outside the alley and looked in. Six people dressed in black stood in a circle around a body on the ground. One was holding a gun out toward Roman's limp form. They all turned their heads to look at Patton when he approached. 

It was like when you're late to class and everyone stares at you as if surprised that you exist.

"Goddamn it Patton, " A deep voice muttered. It came from the man holding the gun, “You shouldn’t be here. Witnesses are never good to have around and I really didn’t want to kill you.”

His hair was short, dark with a slight peppering of grey near the ears, the lamplight from the street glinted off or for a moment before it flickered out leaving them in relative darkness. The man was wearing a pair of nice leather shoes and it seemed as if all the others were hanging on to his every word.

"Who are you? How do you know me?"

The man broke into a soft smile, almost apologetic, "Come on Patton, you're a smart young man. Did you really think that with the type of company you keep that I wouldn't know your name? But I suppose it's only fair that the knowledge goes both ways. My name is Julian."

Patton froze. Julian. The leader of the…

"Shit," He whispered. 

"Ah yes I imagine you've heard of me from you friends, if only we could have met under different circumstances. Dinner would have been nice. Now um if you run along now, we'll all pretend this didn't happen. I would hate to do away with Dee's best friend and his love interest all in one night." Patton couldn't sense any malice from him just… determination. It seemed like he really believed he had to do this.

"No."

"No? I mean I get why you've got a problem, I really do, but see… I made a threat. I said that if he came poking around asking any more questions I would have to kill him. Then he came around messing up my training session for the newbies. And as my uncle always said, 'The most important part of leadership is follow-through.' So I'm really stuck between a rock and a hard place here." Julian sucked a breath between his teeth and Patton heard him chamber a bullet.

Patton never wanted to do this. He never wanted to control people. He hated this and he knew that what he was about to do made him everything he tried not to be, scary, manipulative, but if he didn't then he might as well take the gun and shoot Roman himself because it would be his fault if Roman does now.

"I'm sorry, " He said, his voice breaking as he placed his hand on the nearest one's shoulder.

***

When Virgil arrived at the alley that he heard the screams coming from he was expecting to see Roman bleeding, dying, crying out for help. 

Instead Roman was lying on the ground looking almost peaceful. He would have looked like he was asleep if it weren't for the bloody nose and the purple bruises already blooming against his brown skin.

Instead, the screams came from a young man who was curled up in a ball next to a wall. His hands were over his ears, as if he was trying to shut out something he was hearing. There were other bodies scattered through the alley dead or… no alive. Definitely alive. Virgil could see the rise and fall of their chests. The was one or two others sobbing as if their hearts had just been broken. Julian Penn laid on the ground curled in the fetal position, fast asleep.

And most confusingly. Patton stood, leaning against the wall. His expression was blank despite the tears slipping down his face. He practically radiated emotion.

Virgil heard footsteps coming up behind him. He saw Fae was coming toward them. Virgil whipped off his jacket and threw it over Roman.

"Wait, why are you putting that jacket over him? Is he dead?" He demanded, rushing over trying to push past Virgil.

"No, but he's unconscious, his helmet is gone."

"Oh, " Fae dropped to his knees and said, "I'll give him a glamour so I won't see who he is. It'll show his wounds still so I can check his condition."

"Okay." 

Fae lifted the jacket slowly. He gasped when he saw his face (well not Roman's face but the face that Fae gave him).

"It's not as bad as it looks, just a bloody nose, I think he passed out from too much summoning honestly. He'll come to pretty quick here, maybe shake him a bit, " Virgil said. Fae nodded and lifted Roman's head into his lap, starting to try to wake him.

Virgil walked over to where Patton was leaning against the wall.

"I can't get them to stop," Patton said quietly, by way of greeting or perhaps by way of explanation, "They won't stop crying and screaming. The other ones wouldn't stop either. I had to put them to sleep. They wouldn't stop. I had to. And- and Julian had a gun. He was gonna kill him. He was- I had to. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it that bad." He was starting around at Julian and his men.

"Patton, did you do this?" Virgil asked confused. What had Patton done to knock three people unconscious and leave three more in hysterics?

Patton nodded, eyes closing.

"How?" Virgil didn't understand.

"I h-have powers and they- I can make people feel things. I just wanted them to just be a little scared or feel guilty for what they were going to do, but I panicked and I put too much and- and they won't _stop_ I tried to calm them down, but all it did was put them to sleep. I'm sorry I'm sorry." He was looking at Virgil with pleading eyes and Virgil wondered what he was apologizing for.

Patton had powers and with them, he caused all this devastation. And he did it to protect a friend. He didn't know why Patton was so upset this was amazing (and maybe kinda hot but that was beside the point).

"Patton thank you. You saved his life. I don't know what I would do without him. You're amazing, " Virgil breathed.

"What?" Patton stilled and looked up, meeting Virgil's eyes.

Virgil nodded without looking away, "You're amazing and so brave. They had a gun and you still protected him. You could have run. Nobody would have held it against you if you had run."

Patton was looking at him bewildered. He looked like he was about to say something but Fae's voice cut it.

"Deimos help me," He grunted, lifting the still unconscious weight of Roman, "We can't wait for him to wake up. We need to get out of here before whatever Patton did to them wears off. I got Julian's gun, but it won't take long for him to get other people on our tail once he wakes up. We should find somewhere to regroup. Make a plan."

Viegil nodded, "The lab's close. We can head there."

"Security will never let us in, " Fae said shaking his head.

"Call Lo, he's there and he knows the security guard. He'll let us in."

He picked up Roman into his arms in a fireman carry. And walked back to Patton.

"Pat, I'm sorry, but we gotta get out here. Climb on my back and hang on. We're gonna go see Logan."

Patton scrubbed at his tears with the sleeve of his cardigan, "Right. Okay. Right." He nodded and a determined look appeared on his face. 

Virgil turned around and Patton climbed onto his back wrapping his arms around his neck.

"Aren't you gonna call the police?" Patton asked softly as they all jogged away or rather as Virgil and Fae jogged away.

"No, it's one thing to go against Julian in personal business like this, it's entirely another to snitch," Fae answered.

Virgil nodded sagely as if he had dealt with this sort of thing all the time.

Roman startled awake in Virgil's arms, "Where am I?!" He demanded, looking around from Patton to Virgil to Fae. His eyes widened further and he squirmed, trying to escape Virgil's grasp.

"Safe, " Virgil answered, "For now. We're heading to the lab. Can you walk?"

"Yeah just put me down, Deimos."

Virgil did.

"Fae! Fae I'm so sorry. And- WAIT OH MY GOD YOU GUYS CAN SEE MY FACE."

"No, fae used his power to cover you up, I saw you though and I think Pat did too."

Patton nodded.

"Shitshitshit-"

"Just don't worry about it right now we'll explain things when we get to the lab okay?" Virgil said feeling Roman's confusion.

Roman opened his mouth a few times, clearly having so many questions, "I...but we… okay fine let's get to the lab."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm  
I'm sad  
Sorry


	13. Real Life, Real People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the song referenced in this chapter is Like Real People Do by Hozier
> 
> Warnings: sexual humor, weapons, sad bois, and a lot of italics 
> 
> This is the longest chapter yet, cashing in at a baffling 6.3k words ha ha sorry but this really all has to be one chapter.

"Babe!" Remy exclaimed as they came through the door. Deimos set Patton down, the Knight limped through, and Dee held the door.

“Alright, who’s injured? And who is this?” Logan rushed forward to help the Knight into a chair, but the Knight batted him away with an admonishing look.

“Just him,” Deimos said, leaning against the wall, “and that’s the Knight. Fae is helping out and keeping a glamour on him, but Patton saw who he is.”

“You said you saw me too!” The Knight exclaimed.

“Yeah, but I already knew who you were,” Deimos waved away his concern.

“You did?!” Dee, the Knight, and Patton asked all at once.

“Alright that’s enough everyone sit down and I’ll explain,” Logan sat down on the front desk and began speaking.

“Alright. Eleven months ago the man you know as the Knight approached me. He was aware of my interest in researching superhuman abilities and he needed some technical support because he intended to become a vigilante. I agreed. Around this same time period, I realized that I had powers.”

Remy gasped, “Babe! You didn’t tell me you had powers! That's cool!”

“I am sorry,” Logan said seriously, he plucked a pen out of a cup on the desk and started clicking it as he spoke, “I have the ability to hear what people are thinking at all times and, in fact, I cannot stop it.”

“Soon after this, the Knight sustained a gunshot wound-"

"Actually, " The knight interrupted, correcting him, "You didn't even agree to help until I was hurt."

" This is true and I realized that him going up against armed criminals was too dangerous. Luckily at the same time another superhuman, Fae, approached me and told me that he intended to go become the Knight’s nemesis. He didn’t know that I was working with the Knight. Then over time, two more superhumans appeared and came to me. Deimos and Patton. The mess with Remus changed things. Fear levels in the city rose. They started accusing the Knight of being a criminal himself for not stopping Fae. So Fae faked his death. Deimos stepped in at my request and-”

“So none of this is real, " Knight said quietly, "None of this has _ever_ been _real_??"

He turned and looked at everyone, his voice rose as he spoke, "And you _all_ went along with it! What was it funny?! Seeing me run around and treat all this like it was real?! Seeing me genuinely worry about Patton's safety?!"

He looked Deimos in the eye, "Did you all have a good laugh after all those times I was afraid for my life?!"

"Knight…" Dee started.

"Oh don't you _even_ fucking _start_ with me. I- I thought we-" He growled in frustration, "But it was all part of your game huh?"

"It was for your saf-" Logan got cut off.

Knight rounded on him in a whisper, "You were the _only_ one I trusted. And you sat up here in your lab playing puppet master while I ran around like a _rat_ in a maze. Please tell me that the syndicate is at least real or did you all conspire to make that up too?!"

"It's real, " Patton spoke up.

Knight turned to look at him as if realizing for the first time that he was in on all of it. That seemed to be the thing that broke his anger. All that was left was exhaustion and resignation.

"Am I a joke to you?" He asked very genuinely like he just wanted an answer, "Hell, the only one in this room who doesn't know who I am is Fae."

There was a long pause, "Drop the glamour, you might as well know." His back was toward Dee. Dee let it drop.

The first thing Dee saw was his hair, dark brown. As he turned Dee realized who it was. 

Roman.

So Dee really _never_ had a chance with him from the start. 

How could it be _him_? 

_Why_ did it have to be _him_?

"Hey this may not be worth mentioning, but I didn't know either, " Remy pointed out from where he was leaning against the counter, sipping coffee. Logan laid a hand on his forearm and gave him a look.

"So Fae. Have we met?" Roman asked softly holding his arms out in surrender.

Dee hesitated, "... No, I've never seen you in my life."

"Oh will you just _stop_?!" Patton shouted, finally coming out of the sad stupor he had been in since they found him, "He's been beaten, and frightened, and he nearly died tonight! Don't lie to him too! 

"...Tell him the truth, at least part of it," Patton's voice cracked and he looked as if he might start crying again.

Roman looked at Dee with eyes that drilled into him.

Dee sighed, "Yes we've met, but I made a fool of myself and I wish we hadn't. I wish I could redo it"

All the accusations, all the insults. No wonder he hated Dee. He spent his nights protecting the city and all he got for his efforts was bad press and assumptions that he was in a less than healthy BDSM dynamic (after all if he was coming back that battered there would have to be like no aftercare and- wait no focus).

Roman huffed, cycling back to anger again, "What am I even supposed to say to that? What am I supposed to say to any of this?"

"Well you could try a little _fuckin_ understanding I think, " Remy said lowering his sunglasses just enough to peer over the tops of them. 

Every eye in the room was on Remy now.

"_Excuse me_?" Roman said, clearly a challenge.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure no one wants the human's opinion on the superhuman business, but someone's got to say it and these idiots all either adore you, or just don't have the heart to tell you that you're being a little ridiculous. Like yeah, they lied to you, but tbh they couldn't convince you to be mature enough to not pick fights with the big kids on the playground. So a good portion of this is really on you babes."

"Like look what you did tonight. Always biting off more than you can chew. They had to do something for all these months to keep you from being worm food. You refused to keep your head down. You insisted on going out as a hero. It was all Logan could do to try and help you through all of that, but like, it was running him into the ground."

Roman was standing there, facial expression slack.

"In fact, " Remy continued with an eye roll, "you probably understand all that, but you just feel because, because you didn't figure it out" 

"Not to mention that you've totally been having fun with all this, I know you did, I've seen you fight. And that's the point. All these people went way out of their way to make it realistic and fun for you. They did their best to still let you make a difference without dying."

Roman nodded, looking altogether calmer now.

"And um for the record, I really hated you at the beginning. I didn't know about any of this until the night I faked my death, " Dee interjected.

"This is true, " Logan confirmed, helpfully.

"You hated really me?" Roman turned to him for confirmation. The anger had left his eyes and it replaced with something that Dee didn't know how to read.

"With every bone in my body," Dee said honestly.

Roman nodded slowly, "Good." 

He looked at the ground and scuffed his shoes against the tile a bit, "I'm… sorry for maybe sorta overreacting a little bit." He wrinkled his nose as if apologizing pained him.

"Oh it's fine, " Logan said, likely able to relate to having to apologize to this whole group of people, "we don't have time for apologies. We need to plan things now. There are still secrets between us so I would like each person to meet with me individually to tell me what it is you plan to do and I will coordinate your efforts to attain the lowest possible mortality rate. Roman you first, come into the lab, I'll help you get patches up while we talk."

Logan turned his gaze from Roman, "Remy do you want to come? You already know most of the information. Plus I'd like to record some information about each of them while we speak, after all, they're all already here."

"Sure, you already told me who Fae was and plus it'll be fun to see these guys shirtless, " Remy said with a smirk.

"Remy, " Logan said warningly as the three of them retreated to the lab.

"I'm kidding!"

Dee supposed he was happy for Logan in that he was able to have at least one goal friend.

***

When they got back to the lab Logan had Roman sit on the table as he started bandaging him and writing down information.

"So what's the plan?" Logan asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not going to stop being the Knight, " He said as of Logan was going to try and stop him, "so if that means you sending out a nemesis to fight me nightly to distract from my real duties I'll deal with them to keep appearances up and such. Then I'll stop real crimes."

"I assumed as much knowing who you are as a person, " Logan said, allowing a slight smile to show itself, "However it does leave one problem. You provoked the syndicate. How do you intend to address that?"

"Mmm good point I've heard that they're stronger than ever these days and you can't really hide here indefinitely babe, " Remy nodded, shining light in Roman's eyes to check if his pupils reacted properly. Likely checking for a concussion.

"I think… look I've been turning the situation over in my head and as far as I can tell there were two major problems tonight that lead to my being knocked unconscious. My sword sucks for close-quarters combat, and they had a gun, so I panicked a bit, and let them distract me enough to take my sword. Then I summoned a new one which might not have been a problem, but earlier tonight I summoned a scarf and it was one of those heating scarves and all of it put together was too much and I passed out."

"Okay, " Logan nodded, pausing in his work to listen to him.

"So, really, " Roman continued, "I think that this could be solved with smarter summoning in the first place. A sword is nice, but a dagger would have been more helpful tonight if I wait to summon a blade until I'm facing an enemy then I can make it the correct size!"

Logan nodded feeling a little proud of Roman, "That's an intriguing plan. It certainly has the potential to be extremely effective."

"Wait wait wait hold on. Why did you summon magic scarf on the night you were planning to take on Julian?" Remy asked quite reasonably.

"Well I was trying to get Fae's attention and he likes the warm scarves and I was hoping I wouldn't have to actually fight Julian's men much less Julian himself so…"

"So poor planning on your part?" Logan concluded with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes technically. But look I'm planning now, aren't I? And I realized something that is so stupid that I didn't realize before. Like seriously it should have been the first thing I thought of. I'm always freaked out by guns and-"

"It's understandable you had a bad experience not that long ago. One if I do recall you should have been seeing a therapist about, " Logan pointed out, interrupting what was probably Roman acting as if being shot was no big deal.

"Pfft yeah right. Anyway, I'm always worried about that because even though I have this vest on," Roman gestured to the bulletproof vest he always wore under his costume, "I might get shot in the leg or the arm or something. But I came up with a way to not have to worry about it anymore! I can just summon the costume to be bulletproof! Like yeah, it might take more energy because magic items are always harder to make, but I think it would be worth it!"

'Holy shit he hasn't been wearing bulletproof stuff all this time??' Remy thought, 'Alert the scientific community. I've discovered what all Superhumans have in common! A distinct lack of common sense!'

Logan choked back a laugh.

"Hey don't laugh it's a good plan!" Roman exclaimed, clearly offended.

"No no I'm sorry I just heard Remy think something. You're right, it's a good plan, " Logan assured him. 

"Babe I don't mind the listening in on my thoughts thing, but fair warning, I'm even bitchier in my head, " Remy said looking putting his sunglasses on top of his head and giving Logan a look.

"I'm well aware of this, " Logan said with an eye roll, "I'm also aware of the fact that you still call me Science Boy in your head."

Remy nodded, "I do and I won't stop."

"But really Roman, that was a smart plan, " Logan said seriously. Roman smiled at the praise.

They finished writing down information about him, sent him back out toward the front desk, and asked him to send Patton back when he got there.

Logan could hear Patton's thoughts raging as he walked down the hall. They moved far too quickly for Logan to discern what was being said.

When the door opened Patton looked so broken. He had just realized what they were all involved in for the first time. Logan had been hoping to somehow protect him from this side of things. Which was illogical and an inefficient use of time, technically. Patton was an adult. He should probably be just as responsible as the rest of them for this burden. 

But Patton had already been through so much. Logan had, in a way, hoped that at least one of them could come through all of this unscathed. As he looked at Patton he realized he should have expected this to fall apart from the beginning.

Logan said, "Patton would you like a hug?" He held his arms out to the other man.

Patton nodded. He buried his face in Logan's shoulder.

"I did that."

"I know." Logan had picked up on what happened from everyone's thoughts.

Patton was barely audible as he said, "The part that scares me is that I don't feel bad." 

"You have no reason to feel bad. You did not do anything wrong."

"But I _hurt_ them."

"No, you incapacitated them. The effects of your powers likely wore off quickly after you all left. They will have stopped feeling all of that by now. You saved Roman."

"Also like even if you were hurting them don't they deserve it?" Remy asked. 

Patton pulled back from the hug and shrugged a little. His thoughts had slowed somewhat.

'Can't believe Deimos saw me do that he must think I'm-'

Logan shut that down immediately. "There is very little you could do to make Deimos dislike you. He, in fact, thought it was rad, I heard him think so, " He explained gently.

"'Rad'?" Remy said.

"Yes, it is an abbreviation of the word radical. Frequently used to mean popular, or to use another slang term 'cool', " Logan explained.

"No no I know what radical means I just haven't heard anyone except my grandmother use it unironically." Remy looked mildly baffled.

“You sure he's not freaked out?” Patton asked looking hopefully at Logan.

Logan nodded, "I'm sure."

“Now, what is your plan?” Logan said gesturing for Patton to sit and retrieving his clipboard. 

“I really don’t know,” Patton said with a shrug, “I guess I’m not really in danger because I can defend myself, but… I don’t wanna do that again.”

“Then may I suggest not walking home from work alone anymore? I’m sure Dee, Roman, and Deimos would be willing to walk with you. That way you’re less likely to be caught alone.”

‘That might be okay…’ Patton thought and nodded.

“Jesus Patton honey your blood pressure,” Remy said with a tone of concern, looking at the cuff he had just put on Patton’s arm, “Once we’re done here you go home and get some rest. Your stress has your blood pressure through the fucking roof babe.”

“Oh sorry.”

“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just apologize for your blood pressure,” Remy said putting the blood pressure cuff back in the drawer that they kept it in.

"If you're so stressed we may want to do this at another time, " Logan said, not unkindly.

"Oh okay. I'm sorry Logan." 'I didn't want to mess up his research!'

"No no it is understandable that you are feeling bad right now. It is alright. Why don't you go out and sit with Deimos and Roman and tell Dee that I would like to see him next."

"Okay, " Patton offered him a small shaky smile and headed out.

Dee came into the lab striding with purpose and practically throwing himself onto the table in front of Logan. He had dropped his Fae disguise and now looked like his normal self.

"Look I know what you're going to say I should do, and you should know that I'm not going to."

Remy snickered but tried to stifle it.

"Alright?" Logan said unsure why Dee was so opposed to walking Patton home. "I'll get Deimos to do it then."

"Yeah you do that cuz I already did it, I shouldn't have to again!"

Logan blinked a few times, "What are you talking…"

Then he heard what Dee was thinking.

'I'm not going to stop being Fae this time. It won't happen. I've got to stay. For the people … Definitely _not_ for Roman.'

"No no, I was only going to ask you to accompany Patton home from work until this blows over. You, Deimos, and Roman can likely take turns."

"Oh… well, of course, I'll do that!" Dee exclaimed, "Weren't you going to tell me to go back into hiding?"

"No, I'm leaving the planning up to you all, clearly I have been unsatisfactory in that regard so I am only helping to facilitate making each of your goals possible without you necessarily having to tip your hand fully to them necessarily."

Dee smirked in understanding, "Ohhhh very nice Logan, I'm proud of y-"

"That's not your face is it?" Remy interrupted. 

They both stopped and looked at him. Logan must really be getting tired because he was hardly able to focus on more than one person at a time. He completely missed the train of thought that lead to that question. He glanced at his watch. Oh, dear Newton, it was a little past 3 am.

"Excuse me?" Dee said stiffly.

"Sorry, " Remy said not seeming sorry, "But I was just thinking that if I had your powers I would hide anything about appearance that I was insecure about. You really aren't shy about using your powers so you probably wouldn't have a problem with doing that."

Logan agreed with that, but it certainly wasn't a reason to say that it wasn't Dee's face.

"But the thing is you still let your heterochromia show. Not that it isn't cool and sure maybe it could be argued that you either kept it because you thought it looked good or you added it using your powers. And it's subtle because the colors are yellow and green but that would still draw a lot of attention. You aren't the type to want that. So clearly there is probably something else about how you look that is so extreme that it makes heterochromia seem like nothing by comparison."

Dee sat open-mouthed looking a mixture of dumbfounded and enraged.

"Normal I would leave you alone with all that. I'm not really into calling strangers out on their bullshit, but it's important that we really understand how your body works and we can't do that through an illusion."

Dee's mouth snapped shut and he looked to Logan thinking, 'Call off your attack dog!'

Logan held up his hands, "I didn't tell him to do this." None of this had even occurred to Logan.

Dee glared at Remy.

"Very perceptive. I hate you."

Logan knew this was a lie not just because he heard Dee's thoughts but because Dee admired perceptive people.

Then the air around Dee seemed to ripple leaving him much different than before.

Scales covered the whole left side of his face and neck and continued on his hand (and presumably his arm but he was wearing long sleeves and Logan couldn't tell). The scales were a dull green color and Logan saw that along with heterochromia the pupil of his left eye was an elliptical shape much like a cat or a… a snake!

"I apologize that you had to see me like this, " Dee reached over and picked at a place where the skin was peeling up on his arm, "I was actually going to shed tonight, but obviously we became rather busy."

Oh, Logan loved snakes they were so fascinating! And that explained why Dee was so averse to the cold! And why he never offers his left arm for blood draws! And did he have more acute vision due to the shape of his pupil? Could he unhinge his jaw? Was his tongue forked? Were his scales smooth or rough when they weren't in the middle of shedding? Did shedding itch? Did he require humidity to shed?

"I'm sorry Declan I didn't know you were trans. It wasn't my intention to out you, " Remy said suddenly serious.

Logan snapped back to reality. He had not noticed Declan's chest, he had been rather wrapped up in the idea of a superhuman with scales.

"It's fine, you're right, you need accurate results."

Logan sensed he should say something, "Oh my apologies, Dee I didn't know."

"You had no way of knowing, " Dee shrugged.

Logan spoke cautiously, "May I ask, for purposes of interpreting your blood work from before, are you on testosterone?"

"Yes."

"And this may not be pertinent at this point but do you intend to get any surgeries?"

"Nope. I can't. Most people fly off the handle when they see the scales. The last time I went to the hospital I was nearly poisoned because of them, I would have died of the nurse hadn't been paying such close attention to what the doctor prescribed. It's easier to just cover up with an illusion you know?" Dee seemed to collapse in on himself.

Logan nodded in understanding.

Logan had many questions he would like to ask about the scales but now was not the time, "It is getting late. We don't have to deal with this tonight. Thank you for telling me, Dee. As for your plan, if you want to stay a hero then fine, do so. Be aware, that the Knight- _Roman_ is intending to keep this up as well. You two may very well have to keep track of each other's safety."

"Oh no that will be _such_ and inconvenience," Dee smiled slightly, the air around him rippled again and he was back to Fae, "Should I get Deimos?"

"Yes please do I will try to hurry with him so that you can all go home."

"Thank God, it's really been a long night. I need sleep."

"Would now be a bad time to preposition you?" Remy asked.

Dee turned back and raised an eyebrow, "Preposition?"

"A round or two of some friendly sex?" Remy offered. Logan facepalmed because of course, these two were thinking about sex now. 

Dee tilted his head from side to side with a considering look (and he was genuinely considering it), "Mmm not tonight or likely any night, no offense."

"Oh, no worries. Spoken for? Or just not into one night stands?"

"Uh yeah, sort of spoken for, " Dee nodded and walked out.

'Too bad, the eyes were kinda hot,' Remy thought along with a few salacious phrases that Logan would not repeat.

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" Logan sighed in exasperation.

"It's not my fault that you keep such handsome company!"

"You're insufferable, " Logan said rolling his eyes.

"The word you're looking for is 'Irresistible'"

"Oh really because Dee seemed to resist pretty well, " Logan pointed out with a smirk.

"Only because he's hoping to get Roman!"

"This is true, " Logan conceded, "Which is fair enough, I don't know how well Roman would take it if he heard you two had sex."

"You and Fae had sex?" Said a voice behind Logan. He jumped easily three inches on the air. Logan whipped around. Virgil was standing in the doorway with a mildly surprised look on his face.

"Afraid not. Not for lack of desire on my part though, " Remy said with a smirk. 'I wonder if Deimos is interested in…'

"Stop it!" Logan rolled his eyes I'm exasperation, "You're not just insufferable, you're insatiable!"

"Do I even want to know?" Virgil asked.

"Probably not, you've had a long night, " Remy grinned thinking a few more dirty phrases.

"You're just doing this to annoy me now!" Logan exclaimed.

"Yes I am Science Boy, now shall we get to work?"

"Fine yes let's just get to it. Virgil we're just going to skip the exam tonight, what do you intend to do with this whole situation?"

'Holy shit the infamous Virgil, I didn't even know Deimos _is_ Virgil.' Remy thought.

"Surely I've told you?" Logan's eyebrows drew together.

"No, you never mentioned it! No wonder you're always bringing up the two of them it's actually just the one of them!"

"Hey hi, guys could we have the whole conversation verbally when there's more than two people in the room?" 

"Right sorry, " Logan said clearing his throat awkwardly.

Virgil just smiled and shook his head, "My plan is to keep up the villain thing for the public so we don't raise too much suspicion, but in the meantime try and figure out what Julian is planning for all of us."

"Alright, are you willing to walk Patton home some days after work?"

"Of course."

"Great, you all were very like-minded in your goals. I frankly expected you all to- what's the phrase? Screw each other over."

Remy and Virgil both started cackling and really that's the only reason why Logan even bothered to use slang.

Logan smiled softly, "But I have an idea of how to meet all your goals here assuming we aren't all murdered in our beds tonight."

'Yikes'  
'Holy shit Science Boy'

He strode out of the lab leaving Remy and Virgil behind. The two of them scrambled to follow him. He came to a stop in the front room of the building. Patton was sitting in the desk chair and Roman and Dee were sitting on the floor, heads together, whispering.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Here is the plan, assuming Julian makes no move against us, tomorrow we will have Deimos pick Patton up after work and bring him downtown to 'kidnap' him. He will do so as publicly and loudly as possible. Then once the press has arrived, Roman, Fae, you will charge in and save the day."

"What?" Dee looked surprised, "But I'm a villain."

"Due to your activities in giving money to people who need money and your record of secretly saving people, word has spread. Half the city already considers you a hero this will just cement that idea by having the Knight give you his seal of approval. Then, Roman your free to hero as you will, Deimos you'll be able to keep up pretenses so you can look into Julian's plans by fighting Fae at night now, Fae you'll be able to keep being a hero but properly this time."

"Logan you softy you really do care about us!" Roman stood up and threw his arms around Logan's neck.

Logan stiffened at the unexpected contact.

"Oh sorry!" Roman started pulling away. Logan wrapped his arms around Roman and planted his face in Roman's shoulder.

It was good that he wasn't dead. He would have died if Patton had not walked up just when he did. 

"Lo?" Roman said sounding worried.

Logan hadn't realized how worried he had been until he was hugging Roman.

"Could you please _fucking_ stop trying to die?" Logan's asked quietly.

"Yeah Lo, I'm sorry."

Logan released Roman and stepped back. He tightened his tie and cleared his throat, "Yes, well I think we should all head home."

"Hey, Remy walk Logan home okay?" Virgil ordered, "We don't want him to be with any of us because we aren't exactly the safest people to be around right now. I'll run Patton home real quick and I can come back to pick you up, Roman."

"Oh uh, thanks but actually Fae was going to walk me home!"

Virgil shrugged, "Alright then, night everybody, ready to go, Pat?"

"Yeah." 

Patton climbed on Virgil's back and the two of them were gone.

Roman and Dee strolled out the front door and turned the opposite direction of either of their residences. 

"Sorry babe but I can't leave until five am so we've got a little while longer."

"That's alright, " Logan said and was surprised to find he meant it. He was going to be stuck with Remy for quite a while longer and even with how tired he was he didn't mind.

***

Virgil set Patton down on the fire escape. Patton climbed through the window and reached his hand up as if about to close it then stopped.

"Deimos I really don't want to be alone tonight, can you please stay with me?" His voice was soft and his eyes were on the floor not meeting Virgil's.

"Of course." 

Patton's eye snapped upward toward Virgil as if surprised that he said yes. He moved out of the way as Virgil climbed through the window. Virgil turned and shut it behind him. When he turned back toward Patton he was holding out his hand. Virgil nervously took it and let Patton lead him to his room.

"You can sit," Patton said gesturing to the bed as he toed off his shoes. Virgil took off his own shoes and set them beneath the window. He moved to the bed and sat down awkwardly his back to the wall and his feet dangling off the edge. 

He felt awkward and out of place, and at the same time like this is exactly where he wanted to be. Patton smiles softly. He came over and laid down on the bed, placing his head in Virgil's lap. Virgil did his best to continue breathing.

"Are you feeling any better, Pat?" He asked hoping his voice sounded level.

"I… yeah I really am. You guys were right, I shouldn't feel bad because they were going to shoot Roman and I stopped that, " He nodded firmly.

Virgil could detect a small amount of pride in Patton's voice.

"Hell yeah you did, " Virgil agreed, "you were a hero tonight."

"You could say I did a _super_ job, " Patton giggled. That was how Virgil knew he was back to normal.

He groaned at the pun. 

"Deimos?" Patton said softly.

"What?"

"You don't have to tell me, but I want you to know. I wouldn't tell anyone who you really are if you told me." 

"I know you wouldn't, " Virgil said touching Patton's hair with the very tips of his fingers.

Patton's hand grasped his other hand that was resting on the bed and interlaced their finger. Virgil held in a pleased sigh that threatened to escape.

"Then... why don't you want to tell me?" 

There it was. The big question. The one Virgil had been trying to avoid asking himself. As soon as Patton asked it the answer appeared clearly in his mind.

"Because Deimos is better, " He said honestly.

Patton looked stricken, "What do you mean?"

Virgil huffed, this was hard to explain, "I mean that well- Deimos is cool, everyone knows him, Fae likes him, Roman considers him an equal… he's brave."

"But if you just told us who you were none of that would change."

"Yes, it would. I can afford to be brave and bold as Deimos. I can't afford that in real life. This is easy. It's easy to pretend that I'm this guy who is strong and bold and willing to get into first fights, but I can't even work up the courage to talk to you most days in real life."

"This _is_ real life though, " Patton looked confused now.

"It is but… the real me is a coward. I'm not really like this. The real me lies to his best friend about what he does at night. The real me barely makes it through class awake most days and then goes to work at a late time job where he's yelled at by customers and then he doesn't even bother to tell his manager because he doesn't want to be too much trouble. You like Deimos. Roman and Fae and Logan _respect_ Deimos. The costume, the mask, the powers those all come with the gig but they aren't the thing that really hides who I am, Pat."

Patton looked like he wanted to disagree.

Virgil spoke before he could work up some way to refute what he was saying.

"Maybe you should get some sleep. I'm sure tomorrow is going to be a long day, " Virgil said unaware of how true this statement would turn out to be.

"Yeah, okay, we can talk another time, " Patton said giving his hand a comforting squeeze, then he released Virgil's hand and tugged a blanket up over himself, "Hey Deimos?"

"Hmm?" 

"Do you think you could talk to me or something for a little while? I just like hearing your voice. It makes me feel safe." 

Patton wiggled a little then his eyes fluttered shut contentedly. He just did that as if he hadn't just nearly made Virgil's heart fall out of his chest with a few words.

The first thing that came to Virgil's mind was a song. And the words began flowing from his mouth in a soft lullaby before he even thought about it. It just felt right

"_I had a thought, dear, however scary... about that night, the bugs and the dirt... Why were you digging and what did you bury before those hands pulled me from the earth?_"

It sounded like maybe a Hozier song. Patton smiled softly.

"_And I will not ask you where you came from, I will not ask and neither should you. Honey just put- _" 

And that's when Virgil remembered the rest of the lyrics. Patton's eyes opened at the abrupt stop in the song.

"Was that the end of the song?" He looked confused.

"No, I just forgot the rest of the words." 

Virgil didn't meet Patton's eyes. Patton shifted and sat up next to Virgil on the bed. He rested a hand gently on top of Virgil's (which was clinging to the light blue sheet as if he could keep himself grounded by hanging onto it).

"My powers let me sense lies, " Patton said, letting Virgil know that he didn't believe him, "I'm sorry, did I make you nervous?"

Virgil shook his head, "Uh no I just uh remembered what the next line was and…"

Patton pulled his mouth to the side and Virgil tried really hard not to notice how adorable he was, "What was the next line?" There was a softly encouraging tone to his voice.

Virgil looked down at where their hands joined on the mattress, he cleared his throat and sang, "_Honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips. We should just kiss like real people do._"

Patton's breath caught. Virgil was hyper-aware of the space between them.

He exhaled slowly and managed to meet Patton's eyes. That's when Virgil's nearly infinite self-control broke. He leaned forward until there was no more than four inches between them.

"Patton," He said, "can I kiss you?"

Patton nodded, "Please do."

Virgil closed the small distance between them. He felt Patton's lips, soft against his own, and it felt as natural as breathing, and then he was pulling back. Soft, gentle, chaste, but there and real. 

Virgil couldn't help the embarrassed grin that overtook his face as he looked away. Patton giggled nervously, grabbed his hand, and lead him down to the pillows, Virgil pulled up the blanket, Patton turned his back to Virgil and snuggled himself right in against Virgil's chest. Virgil draped an arm over Patton, feeling the softness of his waist. 

And it fit, Patton's shape just fit with his. They laid there quietly for a few moments.

"Can you sing again?" Patton said his voice starting to take on a sleepy tone, "it went really well for us last time."

Virgil huffed out a laugh, but obliged because as he had found the first day they met, he would do just about anything for Patton, "_I know that look dear..._"

And he continued the song till it's end and started it all over again until he heard Patton's breathing even out. 

***

When Patton woke up the next morning there was an empty space behind him.

There was also a sticky note on the window sill.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't fair of me to do. I shouldn't have kissed you. I'll pick you up from work tomorrow for the thing with Fae and Roman, and after that, I won't bother you anymore. -Deimos"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So!  
That was rough!
> 
> Quick survey leave your answers In the comment 
> 
> 1) if it comes to the point that one or both of the two main couples have sex would you guys like smut or should it just be implied?
> 
> 2) should the trash goblin man (Remus) return?
> 
> 3) Is anyone interested in a sort of prologue of when they were kids? 
> 
> The final decision on these things will be on me but i value your opinions <3  
Thanks for reading


	14. Patton's New Job

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for telling me your thoughts with the survey guys! It was good to hear what you guys wanna see from this fix  
Hope y'all like this, it was fun to write, I've kinda been waiting for this chapter to come out haha 
> 
> Warnings: not entirely unsympathetic Remus, violence, broken bones, organized crime

Roman and Dee were standing side by side on the bridge waiting for a text from Logan saying that they should go look for Patton and Deimos.

"Thanks for walking me home last night, " Roman said not meeting his eyes.

"Hey what are _friends_ for?" Dee said not at all bitterly because now that he knew it was Roman he also knew he had no chance of them turning into anything other than platonic. In fact, he would be lucky if Roman was even willing to be friends with his after he found out who Dee really was. 

"Right, friends," They stood in silence for a long while staring out over the water. 

***

Patton didn’t get off work until fifteen minutes later than he was scheduled. His boss made him restock the cereal shelves which Patton thought was pretty _shelf-ish_ of him.

Actually, Patton was glad to have an excuse to put off seeing Deimos a little longer. He wasn’t sure if he was angry with the other man or if he simply was angry about the circumstance but Patton was definitely angry. And the problem with angry is that Patton didn’t shout or punch things when he was angry, he just broke down in tears. Then people thought he was sad or needed protecting when he was really just super mad.

And he didn’t want to see Deimos and immediately start crying cuz that would be embarrassing.

But there was no more avoiding it! He had to go out there!

So Patton clocked out and marched out the door, determined to not cry even one tear until he was home alone in his bedroom.

Luckily, or rather, unluckily, Patton did not end up having to worry about Deimos seeing him cry because as soon as he stepped out the front doors a black limo pulled up and stopped right in front of him. 

Patton stumbled back toward the door. This was exactly the sort of thing you see when you picture getting kidnapped. A black car pulls up to you at night and stops. Patton tried to remember the self-defense tips Dee had been giving him all this time.

The window rolled down and a painfully familiar face smiled at him in a friendly way.

“Patton!” Julian said in a cheery way, “I’m afraid some complications arose in the whole Deimos-picking-you-up-from-work thing. My apologies. He currently tied up quite thoroughly in the- Ow! Saints alive, Nathaniel I told to tie his legs too! And then check Him for injuries.”

“Sorry boss.”

“As I was saying he’s right here.”

Patton took a few steps to the left to peer further into the limo. Deimos sat in the seat across from Julian blindfolded and gagged with at least six pairs of handcuffs chain his arms together behind his back. A man in a muscle shirt sat next to him trying to chain up his legs as well as Deimos thrashed wildly trying to break the metal restraints. Patton could see bruises already forming on Deimos’s arms where the cuffs where he had strained against them. 

“Why are you doing this?!” Patton gasped.

“You and I both know I don’t have a chance of catching you, so I was going to just pick you up after work and talk to you. But then this kid started attacking us. Not that I blame him but like I couldn't very well just let him keep that up. He would have killed us if it meant protecting you.”

Deimos started bucking his bound feet upward trying to hit Julian and he was shaking his head frantically from side to side. Muffled screams came from behind the gag.

"Okay, okay, just don't hurt him, " Patton said walking toward the limo.

Deimos screamed louder, shaking his head, and threw himself on the floor.

"Great yeah but could you please just uh get him to calm down a little? Cuz if he doesn't cut it out we're going to have to knock him out and really I do not wish to do that."

Deimos managed to bite through the cloth that was tied around his head through his mouth that was gagging him. It fell away. He didn't say anything and just immediately lunged toward Julian's ankles.

"Whoa there! We literally aren't planning on hurting you! Could you stop trying to bite me?!?" He brought his feet on the seat, hugging his knees to his chest. 

Patton climbed into the car. 

Deimos shook his head and snarled, "Nah Nah sister you're not getting me to no secondary location."

Julian raised an eyebrow, "Quoting John Mulaney at the man who's kidnapping you is quite a… what was the phrase? Power move! Yes, that's such a power move. Unfortunately, though I am afraid that I need you to stop trying to maim me."

Patton, finally able to shake himself into action, slid to the floor of the limo with Deimos and caught the frightened man's face in his hands, "Deimos it's me."

"Pat please get out of here, why are you going with them?" Deimos said shaking his head.

The door slammed shut and the car moved, causing him to bump into Patton.

"They had you, " Patton said softly.

"I'm sorry. I was supposed to protect you. There were so many of them. I managed to bring down two of them, but it's just too many guys."

Patton glanced around the interior of the limo.

There were two guys that Patton had assumed were sleeping slumped against the walls and Nathaniel, who had been the one to bind Deimos's legs. Plus whoever was driving.

Patton pulled off the blindfold leaving the mask in place, he noticed Deimos's crown was gone, "You did really well. You were a real _pro_-tector, " Patton tried to joke to ease the tension in Deimos's face, but he knew it fell flat.

"I'm truly sorry, " Julian said. Patton turned to look at him, he looked older suddenly, his face was heavy with guilt, "I needed to talk to you, I was just gonna talk, but… everything got out of control."

And for a moment Patton felt a twinge of sympathy. Then the car turned a corner sending Patton falling into Deimos. Deimos cried out.

"I'm sorry," Patton said, feeling bad for landing on him. Patton pushed himself back up to sitting.

"Not you, just my ribs, " Deimos groaned sitting up.

Patton stopped suddenly.

"Which side?" Patton asked.

"Left."

Patton put a hand on Deimos's side. Deimos flinched away with a whimper. But the brief contact was enough that Patton could tell. He had broken ribs, at least two, maybe more.

"You will not _touch_ him, " Patton said directing the word's to everyone in the car without looking away from Deimos, "I will come with you and we will talk but you will give me the key to unchain him, and you will call an ambulance and you will not touch him."

"We're going to my headquarters, we have some of the best medical professionals in the state we'll get him sorted out," Julian promised, "Nathaniel you will tell Sammy that he just lost himself a job for his behavior."

Patton looked at Julian, letting every bit of the anger he felt roll off of him, and for a moment, not caring if it made him a bad person. He wanted Julian to know that if he ever hurt anyone else Patton cared about there would be consequences.

"Patton, I'm okay, " Deimos lied, trying to calm him down.

Patton turned toward Nathaniel, "Give me the key."

He handed it over and Patton went to work uncuffing Deimos and gently massaging the places where circulation had been interrupted in his arms.

No one spoke for a long time.

***

Remy had, early in the evening, received a text from Logan telling to come over to his house, because he had made some breakthrough in his research. But by the time Remy got there, Logan's mind was far from the topic of research. 

He was on the phone with Roman and Dee who hadn't seen any sign of the other two. 

"This is far later than I expected them to take getting out there, start looking for them, " Logan ordered hanging up, "Hopefully nothing has happened to them."

***

Patton insisted on accompanying Deimos to the medical wing of Julian’s building. This wing happened to be in the third basement level down.

“Hey Pat, these guys are going down,” Deimos giggled, gesturing to Julian and Nathaniel as the elevator traveled downward from the ground floor.

That’s how Patton knew the shock was setting in. Deimos didn't make puns.

Patton laughed weakly at his joke, but he was mainly focused on trying to get Deimos to move as little as possible. With luck, he wouldn’t have punctured any organs yet. Patton was suddenly less sure about how lucky they were. He had gotten a stretcher for Deimos as soon as they made it into the building, but was it enough?

Patton also wasn't sure if he trusted the doctors here.

Julian began, "So, here's the thing-" 

Patton held up a hand, "No, nothing until he's safe."

"It's about that, I swear. Hello, I don't think we've properly met outside of you trying to gnaw off my ankles."

"Don't think I won't try it again, " Deimos growled in, quite possibly, the least threatening way considering the fact that he was laid out on a stretcher.

"Be that as it may-" the elevator dinged and the doors opened, they started walking down the hall toward tall doors marked 'Emergency Medical Wing'.

"Be that as it may I apologize for your injury, I tried to get Sammy to stop but once he gets started very little can calm him. However, he was already on probation and disobeying a direct order is his final strike, I'm afraid, so he has been accordingly fired. Also, I do apologize for cuffing you but unfortunately I was very much afraid for my life if we did not subdue you somehow."

Deimos raised an eyebrow, "Flattery will get you nowhere."

Julian looked surprised, "You are a strange young man."

Then they were through the doors and bustle of doctors and nurses swept Deimos away from them no questions asked.

Patton swallowed hard, wanting to follow them, but also already able to sense that they were trustworthy. So, he turned toward Julian and said, "Okay, you said you wanted to talk."

"Indeed, but I believe this is a matter you would wish to discuss in private, so may I invite you up to my conference room? Perhaps I could offer you that dinner I mentioned last night?"

Patton _had_ forgotten to eat for most of today, it happened sometimes when he was upset, and it would be nice to eat something…

"Okay. But you have to swear not to poison me, " Patton said, reaching out with his powers to sense any malice coming from Julian. But there wasn't any, he just felt a little confused.

"Your anxious friend over there must be rubbing off on you. No, Patton, no poison, there won't even be any mushrooms."

Patton was allergic to mushrooms, but apparently Julian knew that.

"Alright well, let's go then, " Patton said trying to not make a joke about mushrooms and taking him to the conference _mush_room. Or something like that.

He was trying really hard to just be serious.

***

"They're late," Roman pointed out in a tense voice.

"I know," Logan said pressing 'call' again, trying to reach Virgil or Patton.

"Patton's boss said he clocked out over an hour ago, " Dee added tersely.

"I know, " Logan said again, gritting his teeth and holding the phone to his ear. The grating sound of ringing coming from was only adding to his impatience.

"We've checked all of downtown twice over," Roman pressed.

"I AM AWARE!" Logan snapped, "But unless either of you miraculously know where they are, _This_ is the _Best_ I can do. Now, I would love to hear another idea, but if you're just going to keep berating me with a review of obvious facts then please find something useful to do. Do the dishes for all I care, just let me _Think_."

Their faces were stricken, but for once Logan couldn't tell what they were thinking. His mind was too noisy, too much, too fast. All he could find himself thinking over and over is that he didn't hug Virgil last night before he left. Should he have?

And of course, they all knew exactly where they hoped Patton and Virgil Weren't. They were all trying very hard not to acknowledge that it was quite likely that they were already dead.

A voice of a man Logan had forgotten was even here cut briefly through his thoughts, "Logan you go get more bulletproof vests, I'll go get my car, Roman you hydrate so you'll be able to summon things, Fae brew us some coffee it's going to be a long night." 

And Remy strode out. As if he hadn't just suggested that they storm the headquarters of a major crime syndicate with nothing but caffeine and bulletproof vests.

***

"Before we head in, " Julian said as he led Patton down an upstairs hallway, "I need you to meet my second in command."

Patton blinked in surprise, the two of them came to an abrupt stop in front of a door. A shout and sound of glass shattering came from the other side.

Julian knocked on the door. Something crashed against the other side of the door and the answer came, "Come in!"

"Stay behind me okay?" Julian said as he opened the door slowly. 

Patton's eyes landed on Roman with his legs kicked up on the desk. 

No not Roman, _Remus_.

"You, " Patton gasped.

"You!" Remus responded with a grin hopping to his feet. As his boots landed on the tile floor there was a sound of crunching glass. There was the wreckage of what was surely a nice office once upon a time scattered around the room.

"Yes I suppose you two have met, " Julian looked glum, he felt glum.

"Jules, you didn't tell me you were bringing me a visitor! If I had known I would have ordered food or cleaned or I would have at least worn less clothes!"

Both Patton and Julian winced at the suggestion.

Remus babbled on when he didn't get a response, "Oh no you aren't gonna tell my baby brother on me are, are you?"

"I thought you two were twins?" Patton managed to get out despite memories of Remus looming over him still fresh in his mind.

"I'm twenty minutes older, " Remus stated triumphantly.

"Well that'll be all, " Julian said, "Just wanted to let you two get reacquainted. Patton and I have some business to take care of."

"Be careful boss he might make you sleepy again, " Remus a cutesy voice then laughed mockingly. 

Julian's laugh was strained as he gestured for Patton to walk out. As soon as they left booming music blared from behind the door.

"That was unpleasant I know, but I needed you to see what I'm dealing with, " Julian opened another door and held it for Patton. 

It was amazing. There were floor to ceiling windows that showed you the whole city! It reminded Patton of the night Deimos took him up on that roof. Except this was even higher. It was high enough that you could really see the stars up here.

Patton could hardly ever see the stars here.

"Alright, so we don't have long to speak and this conversation can never leave this room."

Patton turned and looked at Julian who was suddenly radiating anxiety.

"What?" Patton said feeling nervous and backing toward the windows.

Shrugged and laughed good naturally, "You have, quite thankfully, ruined me."

"I'm… sorry?" Patton blinked, he didn't understand.

Julian spoke slowly and deliberately despite the anxiety that was bubbling just beneath the surface, "Don't be, it's actually good, after your performance last night I seem... feeble. Things move very fast in my field of work and people are already calling for my removal. It's for the best. I've put away enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life and to support my ex-wife if she needs it and to put my kids through college. I am ready to retire."

"But you're so young!" 

"This life wears on you, I feel old, maybe I am old. They're right, I've gone soft. It's not a bad thing, I'm ready to focus on being a Dad now before my kids get involved in this life. If I don't retire soon I'll be expected to start my son training and if not him my daughter."

"Oh, " Patton was surprised that Julain would have so little agency in the matter, "Hey, no offense, but why are you telling me this?"

"Like I said I have a prepo-" He stopped when the door opened.

The dinner Julian had ordered for them on their way up had arrived and was being set on the table. The waiter side-eyed them and shuffled out without a word.

"Sorry. Dinner?"

He and Patton sat down at the small table.

"Look my proposal has to stay an absolute secret. No one can know about this. Can you do that, Patton?"

Patton paused for a long moment unsure of what he might be dealing with here.

"... Yes."

***

And they were there at the base of the building. The syndicate's main headquarters. The city's seedy underbelly teemed just inside the doors that were marked "Freemen and Penn Insurance Company". And deep in the heart of this hive of evil lie Deimos and Patton.

It occurred to Roman that he hadn't seen Virgil for a couple of days, at least he was at home safe though.

"Ready?" Fae said, hand on the door.

Roman jumped in the air, engaging his boots. He nodded, "Let's do this."

They made it nearly to the elevator before everyone realized that the four of them didn't belong there. And that's when the battle started. 

Gunshots rang out and grunts of pain sounded, Roman summoned a sword and tried to fight off those who were closing in. Logan was reading minds to get the elevator code and to find out where their friends were and Fae was dropping person after person to the floor with the kind of skilled practice that made Roman painfully aware that he probably couldn't beat Fae in a fight.

It was blurry.  
It was too much.  
Were they close to finding their friends?  
Was that Remy's leg that had made such a sickening cracking sound?  
Had he cut too deep on that last slice?  
Was he a murderer now?  
Did he care?

***

"As I said, generally power in this business is passed down in families. You choose an heir in your family, and they take over once they're of age. But there is one other choice, a rule so old and underused that most people have forgotten it's an option, the last person to employ it was my great grandfather."

Patton just looked at him while he chewed his pasta, it was very good pasta. Patton had never had spaghetti this good in his whole past-a.

Wait, no, focus.

Julian continued, "If someone presents a formal challenge to the authority of the current leader then the leader may either concede power to the other or it becomes a battle to the death."

Patton stopped chewing and flicked his eyes around the room still unsure of where the proposal came in.

"I want you to challenge my authority."

Patton swallowed slowly, "But… I thought you wanted to retire… and I don't really feel like killing anyone..."

"No no, I will concede power, no battle. I do want to retire but if I retire now that puts my son Andy next in line as soon as he comes of age. I don't want him to get involved in any of this. Not to mention my second in command will take control until Andy's ready."

Patton froze as he finally understood the weight of the situation.

"He's only six, twelve years is a long time for a man like Remus to have that much power."

Patton found the spaghetti was much less appealing suddenly.

"Don't get me wrong he's smart and an excellent asset to have around. That's why he climbed the ranks so quickly over the past few months. I gave him a place to hide and the means to do it and he loaned me his unique problem-solving skills. And I've been really trying to teach him and ground him to reality a bit because I knew this day would come. It's been working, but... it's too soon. He isn't ready. Giving him that much power would undo everything I've done."

He sighed heavily, "I need a good man to take the throne. I've always done my best to be a good man. Only doing what is absolutely necessary to keep me in place until I had a better option. That was the only reason I was going to shoot Roman, it was going to be in the shoulder. I was hoping to incapacitate him enough that he might not return to the whole Knight thing. There is a chance for me to get out now and I have to take it. So I'm asking you to take this on."

Patton opened his mouth and shit it again unsure of what to say.

"You'd never have to worry about money, with your abilities no one would dare challenge you, your friends would be safe, you'd have a whole army at your disposal."

One part of that struck a chord in Patton.

His friends would be safe.

"So Patton, " Julian gave him a wane smile, "What do you say?"

***

Dee could not fucking believe it. All that they did up there in that lobby and they were thwarted by an elevator. An elevator for christ's sake!

"They cut the power, " Logan said reading someone's thoughts as they were halfway to the basement level where Deimos was. Then the elevator stopped and the light flickered off leaving them stuck with their thoughts.

Dee turned, hoping for some banter or at least conversation to pass the time till they could escape or were killed, but Roman's sleeves were splattered with blood and was staring blankly at the wall. 

Dee chose not to talk to him for reasons completely unrelated to any guilt or fear that may have been stirring inside him for the usually confident man.

He took stock of their situation. Logan's glasses were broken, Remy's leg was broken, and something in Roman seemed broken. He'd been in worse scrapes.

"Hey babes chill, it could be worse, I still have a little coffee, " Remy pointed out weakly raising a thermos from where he was lying on the elevator floor.

Dee _didn't_ like Remy and he _didn't_ need to hear any optimistic bullshit right now. 

Sometimes lying to yourself was more trouble than it was worth.

***

"Okay, I'll do it, " Patton said.

"Great! Then lets just head to some open area where you can shout about challenging my authority and I can immediately fold like a freshly laundered pair of socks." He stood up from the table.

Then Julian's phone rang. He pulled it out and flipped it open. Funny that a man with so many resources at his disposal went for a flip phone. Patton decided it was nothing to _flip out_ about.

God containing these jokes was taking a toll.

"Hello?... Oh, saints alive they didn't…. Just charged right in? ...Did they have weapons?... Well good for them I guess. Casualties? ...Okay, send anyone hurt to the medical wing." He snapped his phone closed.

"What was that?" Patton asked.

Julian rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm afraid your friends came looking for you."

***

It took about an hour for Virgil's friends to be let out of the elevator and as soon as they were shooed back inside, Virgil joining them in his mee wheelchair and they were advised to go up to the conference room. Apparently, something big had happened that changed their status in this building. Which was an ominous thing to say to a bunch of people who have been essentially taken prisoner.

Remy was carted off into the hospital ward due to his leg having been treated like a glow stick. Probably for the best considering he was whiter than Virgil's favorite foundation.

As soon as the doors slid closed Logan turned to him, looking him over, "Deimos are you okay? What is the purpose of the wheelchair?"

"Meh some broken ribs, a concussion, no internal bleeding though, " He said with a smug laugh then winced at the feeling.

"Oh, so you're doing well then?" Fae said sarcastically.

"On top of the world my dude, " Virgil answered, the elevator door slid open, "Hey could somebody push me, please? I'm a bit sore."

Roman silently stepped forward and started pushing him out of the elevator.

"Ah hello sir...s please this way, " A nice looking lady said awkwardly, leading them to what was presumably a conference room although Virgil was unwilling to completely rule out this being an elaborate ruse to lead them to their deaths.

She opened the door and held it to let Roman push Virgil through.

***

Patton stood at the table after having spent the last hour announcing things and taking over things. He was signing paper after paper saying that he was officially the leader of a crime syndicate now. , this wasn't where he expected his life to go. Remus stood at one shoulder making disturbing jokes and Julain stood at the other telling him what his duties were to be.

But then his friends arrived. Logan didn't have glasses on and was squinting at everything, Dee looked tired but mostly unscathed, Deimos was obviously in pain but alive and conscious. The three of them felt confused, but Roman _felt_ wrong, oddly... quiet. 

Then Roman met his eyes and he was hit by a wave of emotion. He crumpled to the ground, hating himself as he fell. 

Wait no that feeling wasn't him.

It was fully and distinctly Roman's. What had happened tonight?? Patton managed to scramble to his feet grabbing the edge of the table and Julian's hand.

Then the only thing more powerful than self-hatred took over Roman. Hatred. That was definitely one of Patton's least favorite feelings.

"Baby brother!" Remus said brightly.

Roman growled, "Get out of my town."

Remus pouted dramatically, but when Patton's arm brushed against his he felt a spike of real hurt. He was… actually offended??

"Wait, Patton, you're taking over the syndicate?" Logan asked.

Patton gave them a nervous smile, "Haha Yeah..."

He felt disapproval from everyone except Julian, Dee, and Remus. That scared him a little. He loved Dee, but they tended to disagree on a lot of moral issues and him approving of this wasn't a good sign.

Patton shook off those thoughts, "Is Remy okay? I heard he broke his leg…"

Logan spoke softly, trying to hide the worry he felt for Remy, "He did. I'm unsure if he is okay, the break was rather bad, I am almost certain he will not be walking for quite a while." 

Patton opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by Roman, "No no Patton you don't just get to brush over this. You're with the bad guys now? The real bad guys? We came in here. We fought for you and you turned on us."

"Hey, dip shit he's doing it so that he can control the syndicate from the inside and none of us will be in danger anymore!" Deimos snapped. Oh, he was so smart, and he just jumped in to defend Patton's honor. 

Patton nodded, "That's exactly it." 

"Oh… but then wait why is _he_ here?" Roman jerked his head to indicate Remus.

"Same reason you're here, our parents had sex!" Remus grinned.

"Oh _grow up_, " Roman snarled.

Remus was about to say another biting retort but Patton stepped in.

"Stop. Remus is my right-hand man. He knows the business and he was Julian's, right-hand man. This keeps him out of jail and relatively out of trouble. He isn't going anywhere so you better get used to him. He will be on his best behavior but you won't pick fights. Understand?" Patton said firmly, giving Roman and Remus the Dad eyes.

Roman snorted and crossed his arms but he didn't say anything else so Patton took it as acceptance. 

He continued speaking trying to sound as certain as he could, "This is my new job, I can quit Walmart, I'll have free healthcare, and I'll start reforming this thing from the inside out. It's not perfect, but I've met some of the people and they seem nice. Fae this will benefit your work because I'll be able to make the whole thing official syndicate business and that will stop people from messing with you. Logan, they tell me that there's labs here with extremely specialized equipment and I dunno what it's for yet, but maybe you'd like it. Also, the spaghetti here is really good."

Everyone was quiet for a few moments.

"It seems as though you've thought this through. Congratulations on your new business venture, " Logan said, Patton felt pride and maybe a little affection coming from him.

"I... I have. Really, " Patton said letting his voice grow softer again, "This will be the best for all of us and I just, I wanna help. You all have been doing so much for us superhumans. The least I can do is protect you. Now… can all of you please help me get this building back in order before morning? We've completely thrown this place into chaos."

"Yes... of course..." Roman said, his tone apologetic. Patton knew he was unlikely to get a real apology out of the man so he accepted this.

Julian nodded and smiled kindly, "Right well that's it for me. I'll take my leave right after you all take a selfie with me so I can show Andy."

So the six of them and Julian all posed and smiled as if they were all the best of friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp... Idk if I've mentioned this yet but this fix is loosely based on an original story I wrote but my favorite plot point from that story was that the absolute sweetheart of a main character stumbled into being a mob boss  
So here we are!
> 
> Edit 11/7/19: idk if anyone will see this but by this point you might have noticed chapter fifteen is a bit late. I'm dealing with a lot of personal stuff right now so updates will be unpredictable for the time being. I hope to get back to a steady schedule in the near future. Thanks for reading <3


	15. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay guys I've had a lot going on right now and this chapter was oddly emotionally exhausting to write hope you enjoy

After Julian left Logan went outside saying he needed to go check his email. Roman and Remus went next door to have a screaming match. 

No really they specifically said that.

"Alright fuckers my little bro and I need to work out some aggression so we're going to my office to yell, " Remus said striding out grabbing Roman by the elbow and dragging him out. 

Fae, finding himself alone with Patton and Virgil, awkwardly excused himself to find Remy's car keys which had gotten lost in the mess downstairs.

Which left Virgil and Patton alone.

Patton was silently shuffling papers around on the table.

"So… this is a pretty big operation!" Virgil said, trying to ease the tense vibe.

"Oh! Well yeah, it is I guess! The whole thing is under the front of an insurance company so according to those records I’m the CEO technically, that’s crazy. And it's not all as bad as it sounds really! I mean organized crime sounds really bad, but it's like a lot of the extra money goes to charities and Julian has told me that he does try to keep an eye on the superhumans who come to work under this umbrella so like it’s good! I'm also officially committing a crime by even being involved but it's too late for that… hahaha…” Patton’s face was tense and tired, bordering on manic.

“Pat…” Virgil had the distinct urge to reach out and touch his hand but resisted. 

“Uh Deimos we should probably get going, I have a lot to do…”

Virgil started apologizing, “Pat I’m sorr-”

“Hey, no worries. It's fine.”

“But-” 

“Its _fine_,” Patton insisted.

Virgil fell silent. Patton circled around to the back of the chair to push him.

“Oh I’ve got it,” Virgil said wincing as he reached for the wheels.

“You _don’t_. So, please, could you maybe just trust me with this one thing, " Patton said not touching the chair, waiting for Virgil to agree. 

Virgil's mouth felt dry, "I do trust you." He wasn’t sure how true that was. Did he trust anyone anymore?

"Then… well then prove it,” Patton’s voice had a petulant edge to it, “Let me take you where you want to go. But if you don’t want me to I’ll leave you be"

Virgil was quiet for a long moment not able to see Patton's face. Patton was offering him a choice. Virgil knew this wasn’t just about pushing him from one room to another.

"...okay yeah, could you take me back to the medical ward? They told me to come back when i had to do up here.”

"Sure."

***

"-and you're just back to ruin this for me again!" Roman had been going on like this for quite some time, resolutely standing by the door to avoid having to crunch through broken glass and stand in puddles of viscous, unrecognizable, liquid.

“Rough night?” Remus asked trimming cuticles with a dagger.

“I- wait, what?” Roman stopped in his rant/

“Nothing just seems like you’ve probably had a night rougher than sandpaper on bare skin.”

“Oh, what do you care?!”

“Um excuse the hell outta me but I’ve always cared, at least when it came to you. But frankly, right now you're being a total Katy Perry chorus.”

“What?”

“Short, annoying, and loud.”

“Hey don't say that about Katy Perry!” Roman said realizing that he should have probably defended his own honor before Katy’s.

Remus just shrugged, flipping the knife around to start carving the words ‘dick’ into his desk, "Look I'm just saying you've got blood on your sleeves and that isn't for everyone. By the way, no one died, they're barely injured, you guys took the most damage really."

"Oh, and why should I believe you?" Roman snarled.

"I'm many things but not a liar. Never a liar," He said, gesturing with the knife.

This was true. Roman couldn't think of one time that Remus had… ever lied actually. So… he hadn't killed anyone. And- and he hurt people but they tried to hurt him first so didn't that make it better?

It really didn’t. He had still thought he might have been mortally wounding people and that had not stopped him. He was no better than any of the criminals he had been fighting all these months.

A knock sounded at the door. Roman reached behind him and opened the door, stepping out of the way.

"Hello," It was Fae. Roman looked at the floor rather than meet Fae’s eyes.

“What do you want?” Remus asked.

“They’ve got everything handled as far as cleaning up goes. Just came to see how things were going here,” He said, but Roman knew he was really there to see that they didn’t kill each other.

“Oh, I get it. The Faerie Prince is here to rescue his knight from the bad guy,” Remus said resuming his mocking tone.

Fae stiffened, “He doesn’t need me to save him from you.”

“Not from me maybe, but he does need you to save him. He’s always needed someone to protect him. He never knew when to stop picking fights and then it's up to the rest of us to pick up the pieces and make him feel better.”

Roman felt sick. Remus was right in a way Roman always had relied on him when he felt bad

“I’m not here to fix anything.”

“Oh, but you are. You want to make him feel better, otherwise, you would have waited until after he came out. Be careful though he tends to lash out when he’s emotional. He’s like a broken vase,” Remus picked up a piece of glass from the top of his desk.

"The shards will make you bleed if you don’t pick them up right. And sometimes they get embedded in your skin. And let me tell after all these years my hands could shimmer with blood and glass.” He poked the edge of the glass with his fingertip making a drop of blood well up and roll down his hand.

Fae sneered, “You're disgusting.”

“Very perceptive.”

Fae's phone went off breaking the moment. He pulled it out and checked it. Roman's went off a moment later.

He pulled his out, it was Logan, it said, "_I'm leaving soon it seems that they are quite organized here and do not require our help. I will be visiting Remy and then heading home. I have invited everyone to our apartment so we may talk. I have news._"

News? Roman wondered what it was that had made Logan willing to have everyone over at their place. He assumed Fae had just received a similar text. Roman looked up and Fae caught his eye briefly as he slid the phone back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Remus asked walking around his desk and stalking forward.

"It was mom and dad I wanted me to remind you that one of us was a mistake and all I'm saying is that my name doesn't rhyme with 'mess'." The cruel words tumbled out of his mouth effortlessly.

"Oh so you lash out with me but you don't even consider the fact that your little boyfriend has stolen things and destroyed property way more than me? What did I do to deserve the hate?"

"He's not my boyfriend and as I recall he didn't act like an ass to me all growing up! You were so mean and the things you said gave me nightmares until I was 14! Every one of your sick daydreams was so gory and scary you just… were awful! You made my life a living hell!"

Remus' taunting look shifted toward something a little darker, a little angrier, "You don't even know hell, Roman. You were lucky, you didn't realize you had powers till you were out of the house."

"How does that make me lucky?!" Roman demanded.

"You ever notice that mom and dad always changed the channel anytime a news report about superhumans came on? Ever notice that you were the little angel who could do no wrong and I was treated like the Antichrist himself?"

"What?"

"I told mom and dad as soon as I realized. I was just a kid and I was scared. I found out in the worst way possible. Have you ever pulled something out of a dream?"

Roman nodded and shivered thinking about the lava that had accompanied him in the waking world, "Once."

Remus looked tired, "Try every night."

Roman didn't know what to say. Every night? That would be exhausting...

"How old were you?" Fae spoke softly.

"Five."

Fae winced sympathetically.

"And you?" Remus asked.

"Four. But I always knew that I was fucked up." But Fae wasn't fucked up. He was the most normal of them...

Remus nodded and Roman could feel a kind of mutual understanding pass between them.

"Every night?" Roman repeated softly.

Remus nodded and shrugged, "Then heard I the things they did to people like us on the news. The next night I dreamt of the monsters for the first time."

"They tried to take me apart and make me 'better'. They had tools instead of hands and their voices were like sandpaper on metal. When I woke up, they were still there. I had brought them with me… Every night after that the nightmares continued because if there's anything that's nightmare fuel its the knowledge that waking up won't save you."

"Why didn't that happened to me?" Roman asked, probing for holes in the story hoping privately that all of it was a sick joke, that Remus hadn't endured those things.

Remus flipped his hand dismissively, "I dunno, there were times I suspected that you had powers too but I wasn't sure."

"Why didn't I wake up?" Roman challenged.

Remus paused at that one, "...You did. You weren't having nightmares until you were fourteen, I was."

"No no hold on I know the difference between a nightmare and reality."

"That's what i thought at first too. Mom and Dad always told you it was just a dream. Somehow you never caught on to the fact that most people's nightmares don't take place in their bedroom every single time. They wouldn't let me tell you."

"oh, my gods…"

"Don't hold it against them, they weren't bad people, they treated me pretty okay most of the time. They just didn't know what to do with a kid who generated eldritch horrors in his dreams. They really wanted to keep you normal."

Roman didn't know what to do with any of this it was all too much. He pushed it all aside. He would sort through feelings later, it was far too late to deal with all this emotionally anymore. 

"I didn't know you guys could make living things…" Fae said pensively, breaking the silence they had fallen into.

Remus looked a little bored, "They aren't really alive they just function as if they are until they dissipate most of them were hollow on the inside, or sometimes clockwork."

"What did they do with the monsters?" Fae questioned.

"Well most of the time I passed out before anyone had to _do_ anything. I suppose making those things really took it outta me. The needle teeth really took attention to detail. And of course, the claws wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t covered in blood as if they had already torn me open. And there was the-”

“Stop, just-” Roman took a breath, “Just stop.”

“You asked.”

“Let’s go Roman.” Fae nodded toward the door. 

“Oh, so you’re both gonna just leave? Even after explaining all this?”

“Well I mean you're still kinda a creep. Maybe not evil but ya know... gross,” Fae stated herding him out the door. Roman was grateful for not having to find a response just yet. But Remus's explanation had made him feel a little better, he felt oddly light as he made g8s way to the elevator.

***

They didn’t let Deimos leave. Understandably so, Dee supposed. The man did have three broken ribs and probably shouldn’t have been out of bed yet much less leaving the building.

Patton decided they could just borrow one of the cars the syndicate owned. They had just given him security access to the parking garage so they went to the level where they kept “company-owned” vehicles, Patton having keys to all of them. They all were walking toward a sensible sedan that wouldn’t draw too much attention when Dee suddenly heard a gasp behind him.

He turned and looked Roman was staring at a yellow motorcycle with a grin.

"Roman no, " Logan said looking back, "None of us even know how to drive it."

"I do, " Dee lied. He felt Patton and Logan's disapproving eyes. He forgot they _both_ knew when he was lying.

Roman smiled even wider, "You do?"

Dee nodded, "Of course." And he would figure it out if he had to but this was the first time Roman had smiled since they realized that Patton and Deimos were missing. Dee had waited long enough to see his smile, he wasn't going to give it up now. Besides how hard could it be?

"Patton could we?" Roman put on his best innocent face.

Patton looked at Dee and back to roman hesitantly, "... Yeah. I suppose so."

Roman turned to Dee, eyes excited.

'Logan please come up with something to talk to him alone about while I google how the fuck to drive this thing.'

Logan sighed heavily, "Oh Romana quick word about ah... groceries."

Roman went over and Dee whipped out his phone to find a fuckin wiki how.

"Dee…"

"Hold on Patton I'm reading."

He scanned the article once and he put his phone away.

"Okay, what's up?"

"Deimos kissed me last night."

"He what?" Dee said with surprise.

"And we were in my bed so we cuddled…"

"You did what?"

"And he sang to me…"

"He did?" None of this was things he would have expected from Deimos.

"And then we fell asleep and he left before I woke up."

"He _What?_" Dee growled with less surprise and much more disappointment.

Of fucking course, he just left without a word, what an asshole. Deimos was lucky that Dee was about to ride off on a motorcycle with his… friend. Otherwise, he would be marching upstairs to kick his broken ribbed ass.

"Okay, we're back!" Roman announced, he grabbed Dee's forearm and tugged him toward the bike, "Come on Fae it's the moment in the teen movie where I ride off on a motorcycle with the bad boy while my parents look on in disapproval!"

Dee was glad to see him brighten up a little. He walked over grabbed the key from Patton and the helmets that hung on the wall. He strode back toward the bike and smoothly swung his leg over. He put the helmet on and held the other one out to Roman. Roman grinned and grabbed it, putting it on. 

Dee resolved to immediately stop the bike and call Logan to come to pick them up at the first sign of him not being able to handle a motorcycle. He had no intention of killing Roman. He just really really wanted this moment and he doubted it would be too bad. He flipped the visor on the helmet up and looked around.

Ooooh, this was a bad idea, this was a bad idea. What was he thinking? Roman slipped onto the bike and put his arms around Dee.

Dee froze. Never mind, this was a great idea.

Roman tried to pull away, "Sorry is that what you do with the uh arms and-"

Dee touched his hand gently to still him. Roman stopped and Dee gently guided his arms back around Dee's waist. Dee leaned into the contact. Roman laughed lightly, not in a mean way.

"I hate to break up what is clearly some sort of moment but might I suggest a wardrobe change so as to not draw attention?" Logan spoke reminding both of them that they weren't alone.

"Oh right, " Roman's Knight outfit disappeared. Leaving him in jeans and a short-sleeve shirt.

Dee changed his disguise to something a little more normal. 

Roman nodded looking over the new face Dee had put on, "Mmm good, very average, I'd hate to be seen hanging onto a guy who's way out of my league. People would try to steal you away." 

What did he mean by that? Why was he cracking jokes as if there was something between them??? Dee looked to Patton and Logan in a panic but managed to find his wits.

"You're hardly average dear knight." He spoke softly.

"Hmm good answer, " Roman said leaning his chest against Dee. Dee flipped his visor down _without blushing at all_.

"Jeez these two flirt, and move closer, and flirt, and move closer. It's a vicious _cycle_, " Patton said with a laugh pointing bike. He and Logan strolled back over to the car.

"We aren't flirting!" Dee said, his voice cracking in his panic, fuck.

"Yeah, I just wanted to ride a motorcycle okay?" Roman said, the eye roll was evident in his tone.

"Wanted to ride somethin', " Patton muttered. Climbing into the car.

Luckily, despite this Dee was _Not_ blushing at all and was completely cool as a cucumber.

He cleared his throat, "Right, well, let's go." 

He revved up the motorcycle and Roman pressed himself impossibly closer. It was strange to feel Roman's arms wrapped around him so gently, not fighting, not wrestling, just holding on.

This was it, Dee realized, he would be able to do this one thing with Roman but then he would have to leave him alone. The hero couldn't be seen consorting with some common criminal like this. They certainly couldn't be seen hugging. 

He kicked the stand up and drove because if this was the only time he would be able to touch Roman like this he wouldn't waste it.

***

Once they made it back to the apartment Logan was forced to break the lighthearted feeling that had settled over the four of them.

"So while I had hoped to tell everyone at once with Deimos and Remy in the hospital I must let you all know first. I have made a breakthrough in my research."

"What really?!" Patton smiled, "Logan, that's so great!"

"Yeah! All your work is paying off that's wonderful!" Roman exclaimed.

Dee seemed to be the only one who had picked up on his tone because he merely arched an eyebrow and waited for Logan to elaborate.

“I have been bribed by a major corporation for my data.”

Roman and Patton’s gushing fell silent.

“What?” Patton whispered.

“I have not officially accepted yet, but the corporation would be able to fund more research into these matters they have told me they might even be able to find a way to prevent the creation of new superhumans and-”

“_What_?” Dee demanded. 

Logan could hear Dee’s disapproval, Patton’s fear, Roman’s rage. All pressing against him in a clamor of voices.

“Oh don’t give me this overly sentimental nonsense. Can any one of you honestly say that your life was improved by having powers?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Falsehood!" Logan snapped, "You have all lost any and all chances of a normal lifestyle because of your powers. Dee, I’m surprised at you, I would have thought you of all people would understan-”

“Don’t you dare Logan. I know what I’ve been through, but my powers didn’t cause any of that shit. It was ignorant bastards like you.”

“I haven't down anything!” Logan roared, his temper taking control, “All I have done is protect you all organize and try to find research to help people like us!”

“Going to some fucking company? Lo, what the fuck we're you thinking? You cannot seriously think that you’d be helping anyone. You’re just helping people force us further back!” Roman looked around as if he was literally trying to see Logan's reasoning.

Why couldn't they understand? 

“No! This isn’t about people like _you three_!" Logan explained angrily, "It is about people like _me_. I am _Stuck_ hearing every word, every song lyric, every stray thought that crosses people’s minds. Going to class is a figurative hell, going anywhere except my bedroom and the lab is inexpressibly overwhelming. Being in that building tonight made me feel as if my epidermis was _crawling_ off of me. You don't even know what sorts of things we're going through Remus' head. And none of you understand that, because you have abilities that help you. Roman, you can summon any object you want, Patton no one could even come close to being a threat to you, Dee you never have to feel insecure about how you are perceived. And I am left with a deafening roar in my mind at all times that only goes away when I’m in complete and total panic.”

Everyone was physically quiet but their minds raged on because their minds were never quiet. No one's was.

“I know no peace, no rest, I cannot sleep until I am so physically exhausted that I cannot do anything but sleep. I’m… I’m just _so_ tired. It doesn’t matter how much I sleep I’m still so tired. Most days it is all I can do to drag myself out of bed to put on clothes. On a good day, I manage to get a bite or two of food before it stops seeming worth it. I just- I cannot- I want- I cant’- I can’t- I- just AGH.” He slammed his hands against the wall behind him.

They all sat in relative quiet for a while but again it was never really quiet.

‘It doesn’t have to be like that you know?’ Dee thought clearly.

“Oh do tell,” Logan responded bitterly.

“Learn to control it.”

“Ah what a novel idea why didn’t I think of that?” Logan said the sarcasm coming naturally for once.

But as always no one could rival Dee when it came to sarcasm, “No you’re right, I’m sorry. You really have done all you can. I mean, you never asked for help, you never asked for advice, you didn’t even follow the advice you gave Patton. You’ve taken all the steps clearly. You go ahead and fuck the rest of us over because you can’t deal with this like an adult,” Dee sneered.

“You still don’t get it!”

‘I do.’ Patton thought, 'I felt that way with my powers and you were the one who helped me get my power under control. Overwhelmed, helpless.’

Logan huffed, “That was different.”

“It really wasn’t, you told me to get comfortable with my powers first.”

“That's because your powers are tied inextricably to your emotions if there had been another way to go about it I would have done it, but that was the only option with you.”

“That’s how I had to do it too, " Dee spoke up, "Everyone's powers are tied to their emotions, that's just how it works. Hell, just tonight Remus was talking about how fear made him continually summon monstrosities. You have to accept that the powers are a part of you and be comfortable with that or it will lash out. All superhuman have to go through it unless they're lucky enough to have a power that doesn't need to be controlled."

Logan's face fell, "_Everyone?_"

"Yeah, and most people do that naturally through losing hope and just having to accept these power flares as a fact of life you, however, have been leaning on science for a way to fix it all for you."

Logan didn't want to accept it. It made his life painful, he didn't want to hear what people thought anymore. But if that was truly the only way...

"Logan just, try a while longer for us? Please?" Roman asked pleadingly.

Logan sighed, "Very well, but be warned I told her that I was considering her offer so she may be in touch."

"...she who?" Dee said slowly.

"Robin Wright."

Dee's mouth fell open.

"Who is she?" Patton asked.

"She owns a bunch of scientific research facilities throughout the country. I robbed her just a few months ago! What a small world." 

"In fairness, you have robbed many people, " Logan pointed out.

"Not really, just here the jewelry store, the mall, and a few others, " Dee lied shooting Logan a look. 'Seriously don't bring that up in front of Roman what will he think of me?'

Logan just rolled his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS STILL NOT OVER 
> 
> I know I know "ToDefine, this story is already 100k and the main couples aren't even together when will God stop your sinful hand?"  
we have one more act which will be in a third separate work, so buckle up because we ain't done yet babes
> 
> Also! Updates may be a little shaky for a while because I am currently looking at coming out to my parents so I've got a lot going on right now lmao
> 
> However! I have a discord now so I was thinking if anybody is interest I could make a little server for anyone who wants to join to just hang out, or talk about the story?
> 
> My discord: DefineIsToLimit#1608
> 
> My tumblr: todefine-istolimit
> 
> Come talk at me, I'm bored
> 
> Kay thanks for reading babes see you soon in the next installment!


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